


1001 Neverland Nights

by PrincessYuna



Series: Tales from Neverland [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Peter Pan & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Peter Pan is not Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold's Father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-02 14:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10946712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessYuna/pseuds/PrincessYuna
Summary: Neverland was not a place for girls. Pan killed them all the minute they reached the island's shores. Until one day Wendy Darling arrives in Neverland and makes a deal with the boy. He will keep her alive, so long as she tells him and the lost boys a new story every night.





	1. Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to post 1001 Neverland nights here for posterity's sake. For those of you unfamiliar with this fic, it's loosely based on 1001 Arabian Nights and the story of Scheherazade. I also wrote this long before Tiger Lily was on Once Upon a time, and I haven't even gotten around to watching her episode yet, so I have no idea of that version and my version coincide at all, just a warning.

Neverland was a place for boys and only boys. That is not to say girls never came there, they did, they just were not allowed to stay there for very long. Every so often a girl would arrive on the shores of Neverland, lead there by the shadow just like the boys were. Though the boys came there full of loneliness looking for a place they could call home, the girls came full of hope. Girls came to Neverland looking for a place where all their dreams would come true. No one really knew why Peter Pan didn’t allow the girls to stay in Neverland. Some believed he despised the hope they brought to the island, others believed he hated them because they were weak, but he would never say why every girl who arrived in Neverland had to die. Pan didn’t kill the girls himself; he hated getting his hands dirty. He had a clever and in his mind fun way of disposing of them. When a girl arrived in Neverland he was always there on the beach to welcome them. He was very kind to them and many of the girls thought of him as their Prince Charming in the fairy tale world they had just entered into. Pan of course took advantage of the girls’ silly infatuation with him. He would whisper in their ears enchanting promises of fairies and mermaids. Before they knew it he was taking their hand leading them to the lagoon to see the beautiful mermaids they thought only existed in storybooks. Of course Neverland mermaids are not like the ones in storybooks, they are jealous and evil creatures. Before long the mermaids would grab the girl ripping at her hair, her clothes, and her skin. Trying to either rip her apart or drown her, which ever was easiest. Pan would watch from the rocks, laughing and egging them on. Before long the mermaids would kill the girl. Pan would go back to the lost boys without a thought of the girl he had just lead to her death. So you see the reason there were no girls in Neverland was not because none ever came to the island, but because Pan killed them all. 

Then one day things changed. Wendy arrived on the shores of Neverland.   
Wendy loved stories. She loved to read them, listen to them, and more than anything tell them. Stories provided her with the one thing her comfortable London life did not, adventure. Wendy was desperate for an adventure of her own, one just like in her stories. So when one night a shadow appeared at her window beckoning her towards the adventure she had always wanted she took its hand without a second thought. It wasn’t until the shadow was carrying her over the streets of London that she thought of what she left behind. She thought of her parents and her brothers, John and Michael, and her newly adopted brother Baelfire, still back in her London home with regret. They would miss her and she would miss them, but the thought of the adventure that awaited her kept her from struggling as the shadow carried her up into the night sky towards the second star to the right. She was excited. This is what she had been waiting for all of her 16 years. She was going to have an adventure and then someday maybe people would write stories about her. 

The Shadow dropped Wendy gently on the beach of a beautiful tropical island. There was a boy standing there waiting for her. He saw her and he smiled the most charming smile Wendy had ever seen. He was incredibly handsome, tall and lean with sculpted features. He wore dark green clothes, as dark as the jungle behind him. To Wendy he looked just like a Prince out of one of her storybooks. 

“Welcome to Neverland” said the boy with a grin. “A place of dreams”

“Well I dream of adventure” said Wendy returning his grin. “Do you have any here?”

“Why, of course we do” replied the boy. “Every day in Neverland is an adventure. The islands full of fairies, pirates, Indians, and of course magic. In Neverland children can do fantastic things. Anything you want can be right in front of you if you just believe that it’s there. You can even fly here once I teach you how. If you’re searching for an adventure you came to the right place. In fact I can take you on one right now. Do you like mermaids by any chance? Because I know where some live. How about we make finding one our first adventure together?”

Wendy felt uneasy. There was something wrong with this situation, with this boy. He was offering her exactly what she had been longing for, but it didn’t feel right. There was something dark and sinister about the glint in his eye. His smirk seemed less playful and charming than she first thought. There was something dark about this boy. She did not know why but she could sense it the moment he touched her. Yet, as much as she feared the darkness she sensed there was still something enticing about him. Not just in his handsome face and enchanting words, but also in that hidden darkness. Her instincts told her to run from this boy, but her sense of adventure told her to run with him. She did not know which was correct. The boy was tugging on her hand, ready to take her to the mermaids, but she held back, unsure of whether or not to follow him.

“Wait,” she said as the boy began to lead her away from the beach. “You haven’t even told me your name yet.”

“Oh your right” the boy stopped and cocked an eyebrow. “It’s Peter, Peter Pan.”

That’s when Wendy knew why she had felt uneasy. 

When Wendy was about 10 years old her mother sat her down and told her she had a very important story to tell her. She said it was a scary story, but it was also an important warning. Wendy was excited. She loved stories, even scary ones. Her mother was the best storyteller she knew. She knew how to change her tone of voice to show a characters longing or create suspense. Everything Wendy learned about storytelling she got from listening to her mother. This story in particular was one that always stayed with Wendy. 

“One day when I was 18 years old, a debutante, I went to a very grand ball. It was held during the summer in a mansion by the sea shore. It was a lovely ball full of a lot of important people. I danced with a lot of handsome gentlemen and told stories with many of the fine ladies there as well. There was one girl in particular at the ball who told the most wonderful stories about magic creatures. Her name was Ariel and we quickly became friends. Late into the night she took me into an empty room and told me she had something important to tell me. She was only telling me because she knew I was the only one who believed in her stories. She said she was a mermaid and that once a year mermaids were allowed to walk on land. She came here on that one day a year to give an important warning to the people in our world. She came from another realm, one called Neverland that was ruled by an evil boy who never grew up. The boy had a shadow that came to our world and kidnapped children. The boys he would keep to work for him, but the girls he would kill. He would lead the girls to her sisters, who were not as kind as her and would kill the girl in their jealousy. For years Ariel had tried to stop her sisters and the boy but it was impossible. Instead she decided to travel to our world to warn as many people as she could to guard their children closely from the evil boy named Peter Pan.”   
As Wendy recalled her mother’s story her eyes grew wide. She slowly let go of Pan’s hand and let her hand drop to her side. She felt a chill go up her back. All of the excitement she felt when she landed on the beach was gone. All that was left was fear, fear for her life. 

“You’re going to kill me aren’t you?” she whispered, her voice shaking with every syllable. 

Before she could even blink she suddenly felt him grab her hand and yank it behind her back, nearly pulling her shoulder out of its socket. Pan was now behind her. One of his large hands held her delicate wrists, bruising them in his grip, the other held a knife to her throat. The charming smile on his face was gone, replaced with an evil grin. His voice now took on a darker tone. 

“Well aren’t you a clever one” he practically snarled into her ear. “You’re the first not to fall for my little game. For that I’m going to reward you. Normally I’d let you die a slow agonizing death at the hands of the mermaids, but instead I’ll make it quick and easy for you. You won my game and you get the prize of having me slit your throat.” 

You would think that having a knife held to her throat would throw Wendy into a panic, but she was surprisingly calm. She was scared of course, more scared than she had ever been in her life, but she was still able to think clearly. While Pan threatened her she wracked her brain for anything that could possibly be used to keep her alive. Wendy was never sure why this came to mind, but she was suddenly reminded of a story she had read once, a tale called 1001 Nights. She remembered how the heroine of that story saved her life by telling stories to an evil king. This gave her an idea, it was hardly a logical plan for saving her life, but it was all she had. Before she knew it the words came bursting from her lips. 

“Wait” she said. “Don’t kill me. Maybe there is some way I could be of use to you. Something I could offer you.”

“What could I possibly want from a girl”?” he pronounced the last word as if it was poison. 

“I…I can tell stories” she began, aware of how useless the idea sounded. “You have a group of boys who live on the island with you don’t you? I’m sure they would love to have a good storyteller around to entertain them at night. I know lots of stories and I can make some up as well. If you want me to anyway…” 

Wendy’s words started to come out in a rush. She knew how feeble of a reason for sparing her life this was. Yet, she felt if she just kept talking maybe she would find a way to justify it. She heard Pan laugh, a dark deep chuckle and thought this was the end. She looked up at the sky to have one last look at the stars before her life ended forever. Instead of slitting her throat though, the boy took the knife away, but kept Wendy’s arms firmly behind her back. 

“You have spark.” He whispered into her ear with a chuckle. “I like spark. It takes a lot of bravery to try to convince me I’m wrong about anything. I may just take you up on your offer. After all the lost boys do love a good story. I think I’ll keep you around… for now. So what’s your name girl?”  
Wendy’s heart was beating so loudly in her chest she could hardly understand what Pan was saying. He was letting her live? So she could tell stories? She had never thought her feeble attempt to save her life would work, but for some reason Pan was going to let her live. Slowly Pan’s words started to register in Wendy’s head and she realized he had asked her name. 

“My name is Wendy Darling.” She said her tone a mixture of fear and relief. 

“Well congratulations Wendy. You’re the first of your kind I’ve ever let live.”

Pan whistled and another boy came out of the jungle on the edge of the beach. He was about Wendy’s age but much taller. His face would have been handsome, had it not been for the large scar that ran   
across his features. He walked across the beach and stood by Pan’s side, a servant ready to follow his master’s command. 

“Felix,” said Pan with a smirk” take Wendy to the campsite. She’s going to tell us all a story.” 

Before she knew it Felix was dragging her into the dark unknown of the Neverland jungle.


	2. Once There Was A Princess…

It wasn’t until Felix was dragging Wendy through the jungle of Neverland that she finally started to panic. She had promised Pan she would tell the boys a story and now she was forced to keep that promise. Normally Wendy would have thousands of ideas about what story to tell, but now her mind was blank. Her encounter with Pan had wiped her mind completely clear of every story she had ever heard. Not a single idea came into her head. What would Pan do to her if she didn’t keep up her end of the bargain? Would he kill her then and there or drag out her death slowly like he had originally intended? He would not keep her alive that was for certain. She realized panicking only made it harder to think, but she couldn’t help it. She was filled with dread, not knowing where she was going or what would happen to her when she got there.

After what felt like hours of stumbling along behind Felix in the darkness, Wendy saw a hint of warm light between the trees. They arrived at a circular clearing in the centre of the jungle. In the middle of the clearing was a large campfire, blazing brightly in the dark night. Surrounding the campfire were a group of ragged dirty boys sitting on a variety of fallen logs and rocks. These boys were much younger than Wendy, but they were vicious in appearance. They reminded her of the bear cubs she had once seen on a trip to the zoo. Though they were young they looked ready to bite her head off at any second. At first the boys had been focused on Pan, who had somehow already arrived at the clearing and was sitting at what was obviously meant to be the head of the circle. When Wendy entered the clearing all eyes turned to her. They looked at her as if she was some sort of strange revolting creature. Some looked angry others looked disgusted but none were welcoming. 

“Ah there you are Wendy” said Pan as she walked into the clearing. “I was just telling the lost boys about our little agreement. Go ahead and let go of her Felix. She won’t go anywhere. She knows she made a deal.” 

Felix let go of his tight grip on Wendy’s wrist and then went to sit down next to Pan without a word. She was unsure of exactly what she was supposed to do. She rubbed her wrist and looked nervously around the clearing. There seemed to be some sort of protocol in the group that she couldn’t quite understand. Was she allowed to sit or did she have to stand and tell her story? If she was allowed to sit down then where exactly should she sit? She doubted any of the lost boys would be pleased to have her sit next to them. 

“Well go ahead and sit down” Pan said as he gestured to a seat directly across from him in the circle. 

It was hardly the ideal spot for Wendy to sit. The last thing she wanted was to watch Pan stare her down as she struggled to come up with an idea for a story. He already sounded annoyed with her though so she quickly walked over to the log and sat down without a complaint. She looked around the clearing at the dirty faces of the lost boys that surrounded her. They were eating their dinner, some sort of meat that she couldn’t identify. She realized then that she was starving, but nobody offered her any and she was not about to ask for anything when her position was already so precarious. 

“We’re waiting for our story” said Pan even more annoyed than before. 

Pan glared at Wendy from across the campfire. He was clearly not a very patient boy. If Wendy didn’t come up with a story to tell now she was as good as dead. After another minute of panic an idea suddenly hit her. It was a story that she had heard many times before. 

“Um… This story is called… Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” her voice was hoarse from fear but she quickly cleared her throat and continued. “Once there was a princess with skin so fair that everyone called her Snow White. She was beautiful and kind and everyone in her kingdom loved her, except for her step mother, the evil queen. The queen was an incredibly vain and petty woman who wanted nothing more than to be the fairest in the land. Every day she would ask her mirror who was the fairest in the land and it would reply ‘You are, my queen’. Then one day the mirror told her that Snow White, because of her kindness was the fairest in the land. The queen was so jealous that she sent a huntsman to cut out Snow White’s heart, but the huntsman took pity on her and helped her escape into the woods. In the woods Snow White found a little cottage. She knocked on the cottage door hoping whoever lived there would help her hide from the queen. The cottage was inhabited by seven dwarf men. These dwarves hated women. They thought women were vain and silly creatures. They built their house in the woods in order to avoid any and all women. So of course these dwarves did not take kindly to Snow White knocking on their door and asking for help. They were going to slam the door in her face, but Snow White made a deal with them. If the dwarves would let her stay with them Snow White promised to cook, clean, and tell stories to the dwarves. The dwarves were terrible at cooking and cleaning and they loved stories so reluctantly they agreed to Snow White’s deal. At first the dwarves refused to accept her into their group and went out of their way to avoid or ignore her. After a while though, the dwarves came to accept and even love Snow White. The story time they had with her at night became their favourite time of day. Though at first the dwarves hated Snow White, eventually she became family to them and they loved and protected her from the evil queen. Then one day the dwarves went off to work and left Snow White alone in the cottage. The queen came to the cottage disguised as an old peddler woman and knocked on the door. Though the dwarves warned Snow White not to talk to strangers she opened the door anyway and let the peddler woman in. The woman offered her a magic apple that would make all of her dreams come true if she took just one bight. Snow White believed the woman and took a bight of the apple, only to fall over dead. When the dwarves came home they were devastated to find Snow White dead. They immediately realized that it was the evil queen who had killed her and they were angry. The dwarves took out their swords and decided to kill the queen as revenge. Along the way they met a handsome Prince who volunteered to help them get revenge on the queen after he heard their story. Together the Prince and the dwarves stormed the queen’s castle and cut off her head. They then went back to the cottage to have a funeral for Snow White. When the Prince saw her for the first time he fell in love with her, even though she was dead. She was so beautiful he could not help but kiss her. And you know what happened when he kissed her? She woke up! She was not dead she was just under a sleeping curse. The Prince and Snow White fell in love, got married, and moved to the castle with the seven dwarves. Together all of them lived happily ever after.” 

Of course this wasn’t the traditional story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Wendy had made a few changes to fit her audience. She thought the lost boys would probably prefer a story with a bit more violence in it than the traditional version. She also hoped the lost boys would understand the message she was trying to get across with the story. Maybe someday they would grow to accept her like the dwarves did with Snow White. If she was going to be stuck in Neverland for a long time she would rather not have to endure the harsh glares and hateful silence of the lost boys. 

Wendy looked around the clearing to see if the boys still looked at her with hatred. She was surprised at the sudden change she saw. Many of their faces had now softened. They did not exactly look kind, but they did not look disgusted either. They looked almost hypnotized by her story. Some even looked like they were ready to drift off to sleep. She was startled by how young and innocent they all looked now. Even Felix seemed less angry than when she had first seen him on the beach. He almost seemed to smile at her. Only Pan’s features had not softened since she had started her story. He still glared at her from across the fire with a dark look on his face. He did not exactly look angry though; he looked more like he was deep in thought. The way he looked at her made Wendy worry. Maybe he did not like the story and was now wondering if it was worth it to keep her alive. He was not the must trust worthy boy and she would not be surprised if he decided to back out of their deal. She made a deal with a devil and she feared he would not see it through. The clearing was completely silent as the two of them stared at each other for several endless minutes. Suddenly Pan got up and broke the silence. 

“Not a bad story, for a girl “ said Pan with a chuckle. “I’d forget all about that silly love nonsense though. There is no love in Neverland, only loyalty to me. Anyway I’m done with you for today. You’ve earned you keep for now. Felix, take Wendy to her cage.”

Wendy was outraged at the thought of such a thing. There was nothing in their deal about a cage. She had not expected there would be a fluffy bed waiting for her but she never dreamed she would be kept in a cage. She was not an animal, in fact she was probably the most civilized person in this entire land. She would not allow herself to be caged. But before Wendy had the chance to protest Felix had grabbed her arm and was once again dragging her through the jungle. Whatever kindness he had felt towards her during her story was gone the minute Pan gave him an order. Soon he was locking her into a bamboo cage in the middle of the dark jungle. 

She had no energy to scream or cry or beat at the bars of her cage. She could only think about all that had happened. Wendy’s adventure had not gone how she had planned it. This was not a fairy tale like Snow White. There would be no happy ending. The only possible ending to this story was eternal captivity or death. The lost boys were not dwarves who would learn to love and protect her like family. Pan was their only family. There was no prince charming coming to rescue her from Pan. Not her father, her brothers, or even Baelfire would come to save her. She did not even want them to. They would only end up trapped here too, and that is a fate she would not wish on anyone. No, Wendy’s life was not like Snow White’s. She was not a princess, she was a prisoner.


	3. The Infernal Dance

As time went by Wendy’s days in Neverland began to follow a routine. It was not pleasant, but it was mostly consistent. She would wake up to the too bright sunshine blaring through the trees. There were no clocks in Neverland so she was never sure what time she woke up, but it was fairly late into the day. She would rub her eyes and attempt to stretch out in the cramped confinement of her cage. Perhaps an hour would go by before her breakfast arrived and she would spend that time wishing she had some way to take a bath or listening to her stomach growl. Eventually Pan would remember that she needed to be fed and would send one of the lost boys, usually Felix, over with a bowlful of berries and nuts for her breakfast. Meals, when they happened, were one of the few bright spots in her day. Felix never spoke when he brought her meals but he seemed to look at her with sympathy. She would sit and eat in silence while he watched from a distance, supposedly on duty to make sure she didn’t try to escape. She sometimes hoped he would help her escape her cage, but then she would remember he was much too loyal to Pan to even think of that. So during all those meals with him she never asked him for help, no matter how desperate she was. He would only inform Pan, who would then decide it was time to go visit the girl. Visits from Pan were the worst parts of Wendy’s days.

Pan’s visits were not quite daily, but they were frequent. Sometimes he would come at random in the middle of the day. Most likely he was bored with the lost boys and decided to turn to his new pet for entertainment. He would sit in front of her cage and leer at her while she sat as far away from him as the bars allowed. He would ask her questions about her home and her family, not because he was curious, but because he knew how much she missed them. He wanted to see her squirm with the pain of the memories his questions brought up. Once she had accidently let slip that she had two younger brothers. Pan immediately seemed interested. He told her he had been looking for few new recruits to the lost boys and it sounded like her brothers would be perfect for the job. Wendy had to beg and plead with him to leave them alone. She would not let them be taken to this terrible place because of her. Pan seemed to get pleasure from hearing her beg, so much so that it became a new game for him to play with her. 

Soon Pan started to come with her meals instead of Felix. Instead of being a bright spot in her day, her breakfast became a continuation of the nightmares she had in her sleep. He would hold her bowl just out of reach and watch as she struggled to grab even a handful of berries. He would laugh at her and tell her to beg for her food. Only after her arms got tired from straining against the bars of her cage would she finally give into his demands. 

“Please, Pan” she would cry. “This isn’t funny anymore. I’m not a toy for you to play with. I need food, I’m starving in here. You barely remember to feed me as it is. Don’t torture me like this.”

Pan would only chuckle as he handed her the bowl of food. She’d snatch it out of his hands like the starving beggar he had turned her into, gobbling it down quickly before he changed his mind and decided to take it back. He would watch her in the same way he did when she told stories, like he was contemplating something incredibly important. Wendy on the other hand refused to so much as look at him. She would only glance down at the ground in hatred. He no longer looked like the handsome prince she had first seen on the beach, he only looked like a demon. Wendy thought she could never feel anything but hatred for Pan. He was the one who kept her in a cage. He was the one who separated her from her family. He teased her and tormented her in the most terrible ways. Yet, for some reason Pan seemed determined to make her fall for him. It was another one of his games. He enjoyed the idea of Wendy thinking of him as a prince like the ones in the stories she told the lost boys, even if it was far from true. Once he refused to give her any food until she kissed him. 

“The frog in that story you told last night turned into a prince when that princess kissed him.” He teased. “Maybe the same will happen to me. Then you’ll get that happily ever after you’ve always dreamed of.”  
Wendy was appalled at the thought of so much as touching that evil boy. She would rather kiss a frog; it would be much less vile. But she had no choice, she was desperate for food. She pressed her face to the bars of her cage and tried to keep from vomiting as she quickly touched her lips to his. 

“Oh look,” taunted Pan. “I’m still me. Looks like you won’t get that happy ending after all.” 

Wendy ripped her food angrily out of his hands. She ate in silence, reviling in her hatred of the boy. She tried to ignore all thoughts of the kiss and the small spark she had felt as their lips touched. It was her first kiss. 

Though Wendy could not feel anything but hatred for Pan, she had grown almost fond of the lost boys. They did not exactly love her, but they were not unkind to her. They seemed to enjoy the story time they had at night almost as much as Wendy did. For Wendy it was the best time of day. It was the only time she was allowed any freedom. Every day after it became dark Felix would come and unlock her cage. He was no longer harsh as he led her through the woods to the clearing. She would sit in the spot the boys saved for her, the same spot as she had sat in her first night in Neverland, across from Pan. There the boys would hand her some dinner and wait with excitement for the night’s story. Her stories seemed to have a soothing effect on them. When she started her stories they would still be wild and rowdy, but by the time she finished they were calm and happy. She told them all of the usual stories, the ones she had often told to her brothers, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and the like, but altered them a bit to fit the tastes of the lost boys. Often she would add scenes of violence to keep the boys interested, but no matter how much Pan teased her about it she continued to tell stories of love. She still had hope, not exactly for some grand happy ending, but perhaps for a smaller one like freedom from her cage. 

It with this hope for freedom in mind that Wendy decided to tell the lost boys one her favourite stories. The story of the Firebird. 

“One day a young prince named Ivan was hunting in the forest when he got very lost. While he was trying to find his way home he stumbled upon a beautiful enchanted garden. Prince Ivan was amazed by the beauty of the garden, but what he did not realize was that the garden belonged to the evil sorcerer Kostchei. Ivan wandered around the garden admiring the large variety of rare magic plants until he found a creature that truly amazed him. The firebird flew past him, her tail a brilliant blazing light. Ivan had never seen anything like her. She was part woman, part bird, and part fire. She moved faster than any bird he had ever seen and shone brighter than all the jewels in his kingdom. The moment he saw her Ivan knew that he must have her as part of his menagerie. So he followed the firebird until she came to rest in a tree full of magic golden apples. Ivan caught the firebird and tied her up with some rope he had brought with him. He was going to bring the bird back to his kingdom when he noticed something had changed about her. She looked sad and her tail burned less brightly than it had when she flew around the forest. The firebird was dying. ‘What is wrong with you beautiful bird?’ asked Ivan ‘Why do you no longer shine brightly?’ ‘Because I am no longer free’ replied the bird ‘and I am no longer happy. But if you let me go I will be happy again and I will owe you a favour.’ The prince was kind and he felt bad for the firebird so he let her go. Before she went off to enjoy her freedom she gave Ivan one of the feathers from her bright tale and told him if he ever needed help he should wave the feather in the air and she would come to his aid. The Prince thanked the bird for the gift and continued to explore the garden. Soon he encountered a grand castle in the middle of the woods. Outside the castle were twelve young maidens playing in the garden. Ivan instantly fell in love with the most beautiful of these maidens, Tsarevna. Ivan introduced himself to the maiden and she quickly fell in love with him as well. Ivan asked her to come away with him too his castle but she could not. She and her sisters were prisoners of the evil sorcerer Kotschei who would surely kill Ivan if he discovered him in his garden. Ivan promised Tsarevna that he would kill the sorcerer and marry her. They sealed their love with a kiss and Tsarevna went back into the castle with her sisters. Soon Kotschei came out into the garden with his advisors. He discovered Ivan and threatened to turn him into stone. Before he could do so, Ivan raised the firebird’s feather into the air and called for her help. The firebird arrived in a streak of light to help the prince. She cast a spell on the sorcerer and his advisors forcing them to dance an infernal dance until they all fell to the ground from exhaustion. Ivan then cut off all their heads and with the firebirds help set fire to the bodies. He thanked the firebird for all her help and apologized for trying to keep her caged up in the first place. The firebird wished him well and went off to enjoy her freedom. Ivan took Tsarevna and her sisters back to his castle where they all lived happily ever after and remembered how that day they learned an important lesson. Never cage a wild bird.” 

All was quiet and still as Wendy finished telling her story. The lost boys had transformed from the wild animals they were during the day into the innocent children they became after listening to the soft lull of Wendy’s voice. A small smile was on Felix’s lips, a rare sight for anyone, let alone Wendy. As usual Pan was lost in thought, though his face was not as dark as it was before. His expression was softer almost sympathetic. That was even more unusual to Wendy than Felix’s smile. She doubted the boy could ever feel true sympathy for anyone, but at least for once he did not look like he was going to kill her.  
Normally this was the time he would order Felix to take her back to her cage, but tonight he didn’t. Instead he took out his pipes and began to play. It was the most hauntingly beautiful melody Wendy had ever heard. It seemed to express everything she was longing for freedom, family, and love. She listened as if in a trance, looking Peter in the eyes for the first time since she arrived on the island. It seemed like hours later when he put down his pipes and gestured for her to come to him. It wasn’t until then that Wendy noticed all of the others had fallen asleep. Her hatred for Pan had not disappeared, she had no tender feelings for him, but she feared him enough to follow his command and sit next to him. 

“I guess you’re going to take me back to my cage now” she said reluctantly, her eyes at the ground.

“No bird, “ said Peter softly. “I think we’re done with that cage.”

“Bird?” asked Wendy, not quite understanding. “What do you mean?”

“You’re a Wendy bird” he replied with a small chuckle. “Like the firebird. Who am I to cage a wild bird? You’re still not allowed to leave Neverland, but I’ll give you a bit more freedom. You should be grateful to me for being so kind to you really. I don’t have to do this.”

“Thank you” she replied softly.

Wendy wasn’t sure what to feel. It wasn’t real freedom, but it was something. She was more startled at Pan’s sudden kindness to her than anything else. This is a side she had never seen before. She wondered if maybe she had already fallen asleep and this was all a dream. Maybe she would wake up back in her cage in the morning. There was no use questioning it now, better to enjoy it while it lasted. She curled up in a ball on the dirt of the clearing far away from Pan. She watched the fire slowly die as she drifted off to sleep wondering what could have caused this sudden change in him. He had never shown any regard for her feelings before so why now? Maybe he had just grown tired of his old game and this was some sort of new one. Whatever it was she was sure there was something in it for him, he was never selfless.

There had not been nearly as big of a change in Wendy. She still hated him, she still felt like a prisoner, but maybe a little less so.


	4. There’s No Place Like Home

Neverland was cold at night and Wendy shivered as she lay on the hard ground. It had been a week now since she had been freed from her cage, but she still had not gotten used to sleeping on the ground with the other lost boys. Though it was certainly better than the cage, it was not comfortable. The other lost boys seemed to have long grown accustomed to sleeping on the ground but she was not. She would toss and turn all night until finally she was too exhausted to be uncomfortable and she fell asleep. 

Often while she lay awake in the middle of the night an uncontrollable wave of sadness would wash over her. She would suddenly remember her home and her family and be hit by a sharp pang of sadness. She’d remember her brightly painted walls of the nursery she had shared with her brothers. The lace curtains hanging on her window that she had loved so much. She thought of her big brass bed at home where she would curl up under the warmest quilts and blankets and easily drift off to sleep. Every night her mother would kiss her forehead and turn out the lights, the smell of her rose scented perfume lingering in the room. Those memories, not the cold hard ground, were what really kept her up at night. Before she could stop herself she would burst into tears. She would sob uncontrollably every night. Sometimes it seemed as though others joined in, like the whole island cried with her. It may have only been the wailing of the wind, but Wendy often wondered if the lost boys cried as well, if they missed their families as much as she did. She never bothered to find out, she was too busy drowning in her own misery. She would cry for hours until finally she ran out of tears. 

Unlike the other boys, Pan never seemed to sleep. As long as Wendy was awake he would be, watching them all from his usual rock. He looked like a king, watching over his subjects from his throne, above them all. Wendy often felt his eyes on her as she struggled to fall asleep. It made her even more uncomfortable, wondering what he could possibly be thinking as he stared at her body stretched out on the ground. She remembered her parents warnings about how boys could have impure thoughts if they saw too much of her body and struggled to cover herself more with her thin nightgown, protecting her body from his gaze. Yet, for all of Wendy’s fears and hatred of the boy his eyes did not look unkind. He did not seem to have any evil intentions. Instead he seemed to worry about her as she tossed and turned at night and when she started to cry he appeared tormented by her tears. He almost looked like her cared about her, if Pan could possibly be said to care about anyone but himself. 

Though Wendy saw his troubled looks, the hatred in her heart still did not soften towards him. He was the one who kept her there, who caused all her sadness, so he deserved to be tormented by her tears. She felt no sympathy for his pain when he had caused all of hers. His pain stemmed from guilt, not love, and it would cause no kindness towards him to develop in Wendy’s heart, or at least that is what she felt at the time.   
It was on that particularly troubling night that Wendy’s feelings had started to change. She was remembering her last night at home and how eagerly she had followed the shadow to this terrible land. Why had she not realized how good she had it there? Why had she longed for adventure when all she truly needed for happiness was her family surrounding her? If she could just go back home she’d never dream of leaving again. She would be perfectly content with her unexciting life in London. The more she thought about it the faster the tears came until once again she was sobbing uncontrollably. She had cried about this many nights before, but this time things were different. This time Pan got up from his seat and walked over to where she was laying. 

He was angry at her, but his face was also full of pain. He crouched down to her level and glared at her in a mixture of confusion and rage. Wendy sat up instantly in fear, ready to defend herself from any blows that come towards her, but he did not strike her. Instead he stared to yell at her, like he was hurt by her tears.

“Why do you keep crying!” he yelled.

“Because I miss home” she replied, her voice shaking in fear.

“You should be happy now!” he replied, gripping her face to make her look into his eyes. ”I let you out of your cage, let you become part of the lost boys. I’ve been going out of my way not to please you. Why aren’t you happy? This is a place of dreams. There is magic in every corner of this island. You can do anything you want. You never have to grow up, there are no adults to tell you what to do, no manners to mind. I don’t understand. What more could you possibly want!” 

“I want to go home!” she yelled back, angry that he thought these things should be enough to make her happy. “I want to go back to my family, to my house. I don’t want to sleep on the ground I want my big soft bed at home. I want four walls around me, instead of trees. Windows with lace curtains and plush carpets, not leaves and dirt. I want to eat at a table with my family, not at a campfire with a bunch of savage boys. I want all that and a million other things that you cannot possibly give me unless I leave here. If you were really so concerned with my happiness you would let me go home!” 

Wendy was a mess after her outburst. Tears streamed down her cheeks and every other breath was a sniffle. She hoped that maybe now Pan would understand. That he would finally realize he should let her leave Neverland. At the very least maybe he would be so sick of her crying that he would send her back just to get rid of her. She let hope build within her, but that hope was quickly crushed by his next words. 

“I won’t let you leave Neverland” he said, shooting down her request without even giving it a thought. “But I think I can find a way to make you just as happy here as you ever were there.”

She was still angry at him. How could he possibly believe, after all that she had said, that she could ever be happy in this place? Yet, she was struck by how genuine he was being. He actually seemed to want her to be happy there. She thought that perhaps he was not as heartless as she had first thought. Within all the darkness in his heart there could just be a tiny fleck of light. If he was going to try to be kinder to her then perhaps she could try to be a little kinder to him, but only a little. 

She slowly nodded her head at him and he let go of his grip on her face. There were red marks left by his hand, but they did not hurt much and would quickly fade. She lay back down on the ground and tried to get comfortable. He did not go back to his rock, but instead sat next to her and leaned against a tree trunk. 

“Think happy thoughts Wendy bird.” he whispered into her ear. “It’ll help you fall asleep.”

Wendy tried to follow his advice. Tried to imagine that tomorrow he would change his mind and she would be returned to her family. Before she knew it she had drifted off to sleep. Pan stayed by her side and watched over her until the sun rose. 

When Wendy woke up the next day Pan was already gone and the lost boys were going about their business. Wendy’s days were generally spent trying to stay out of their way while they hunted, played games, or whatever else they felt like doing. Sometimes they would let her join in or would give her small tasks to do like pick berries. She wasn’t exactly one of them but they were pleasant to her and she did not mind spending time with them. 

Pan did not shown up at all that day but Wendy had not forgotten what he had said to her the previous night. As she picked berries she wondered what he could possibly be planning on doing to make her happy. When he finally arrived at nightfall she thought she would find out, but instead he told everyone it was time for a story. The boys gathered around the campfire and Wendy prepared to tell the story she had picked for that night. She felt an incredibly personal connection with this story and she hoped that would come across to Pan. 

“In a small town in Kansas there lived a young girl named Dorothy. She was an orphan but she was raised on a poor farm by her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothy found the farm dreary and boring, but she always had her little dog Toto to brighten her day. Still she longed for adventure. She wanted to see the world outside of the Kansas prairie. So even though she loved her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry very much she decided to run away from home to travel to Europe. Before she could even leave home though a tornado came and swept her house away while she and Toto were trapped inside. They landed in a magical place called Oz in a town called Munchkin land. When Dorothy stepped out of her house into the town she was warmly greeted by the tiny Munchkins that lived there. They told her she was their hero because she had killed the Wicked Witch of the East, who had ruled as a tyrant over the people of the land. Dorothy looked over at her house and saw two feet wearing beautiful silver shoes sticking out from under it. She hadn’t meant to kill anyone but if her house had to fall on top of someone she was glad it was a wicked witch. Suddenly a beautiful woman appeared in front of her house and introduced herself as the Good Witch of the North. She thanked Dorothy for her good deed and gave her the shoes as a reward. ‘Well that’s awfully kind of you’ said Dorothy, ‘But what I would really like is to go home.’ ‘Well in that case’ said the Good Witch ‘You had better follow the yellow brick road to ask the Wizard of Oz for help in the Emerald city. He’s much more powerful than I am, but be careful. The Wicked Witch of the West, the sister of the witch you killed will be after you. She will want your magic shoes so guard them with your life.’ Dorothy thanked her for the help and said her goodbyes to the Munchkins before starting down the yellow brick road with Toto. She could not wait to get home and hoped the Wizard would be able to help her get there. While she was walking down the road she met a Scarecrow. The Scarecrow was sad, he had no brain and so the crows only laughed at his ignorance and were not scared. If he could only have a brain he would be happy he told her. So Dorothy told him that she was going to see the Wizard of Oz to ask him to send her home and if he came with her maybe he could ask the Wizard to give him a brain. The Scarecrow agreed to go with her and they quickly became friends as they travelled down the yellow brick road. A little while later they ran into a Tin Man who had rusted in place. They helped oil the man and then asked him how this had happened to him. He said he had rusted because he was crying. He had no heart so he could not love and this made him miserable. Dorothy told him that he should come with them to ask the Wizard of Oz for help, maybe he could give him a heart. The Tin Man agreed to go with them and they happily continued their journey. Soon they encountered a forest full of vicious wild animals. They were very scared but they wanted to get to the Wizard quickly so they travelled through the forest. Suddenly they heard a huge roar and a ferocious lion jumped out at them. Dorothy was scared, but she wouldn’t let anything keep her from getting home, so she swatted the lion on the nose. To her surprise the lion started crying. He told her that he wasn’t a real lion because he was born without courage. Dorothy offered to let the Cowardly Lion go with them to see the Wizard to ask him for help, and he agreed to come. Before long the four off them arrived at the Emerald city. They were greeted warmly by the citizens and were lead to the Wizard. The Wizard told them he would only help them if they killed the Wicked Witch of the West for them. The others were scared, but Dorothy was determined to get home so she led them all to the witch’s castle. There they killed all the guards and melted the Witch before she managed to get the magic shoes off of Dorothy’s feet. They went back to the Wizard with the witch’s broom to let him know that they had killed her. But when they got there they were shocked to discover that the Wizard had no magic and could not help them. Dorothy was upset and angry, she had done all that and she still did not get to go home! Before she could even shed a tear Glinda, the Good Witch of the North appeared in front of them. ‘You don’t need the Wizards help or even my help’ she said. ‘You all already had what you were looking for. You proved that on your journey.’ ‘Well what about me!’ cried Dorothy ‘How am I supposed to get home!’ ‘You could have gone home all along’ said Glinda ‘The magic shoes will take you there if you click your heels together three times and say there’s no place like home.’ So Dorothy did so and before she knew it she was back in her house in Kanasas with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. That day Dorothy realized that she was right where she was meant to be. No adventure in foreign lands would be as good as the time she spent with her family. There really was no place like home.” 

Wendy’s story had been a bit longer than she had planned and by the time she had finished all the lost boys were drifting off to sleep. She was about to prepare to do the same, but Pan was gesturing for her.

“I have a present for you Wendy bird” he whispered as she sat down next to him. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”

Before she could respond Pan had grabbed her hand and was pulling her up from her seat. The pull of his hand as he led her through the jungle was gentle, not the strong jerk she had expected from him. He walked slowly waiting for her to catch up, pointing out rocks and roots that she might trip on. It was almost sweet the way he guided her, and if Wendy had not been so concerned about where he was taking her it might have even made her smile. After a while they reached another clearing in the jungle, and Wendy saw something she never thought she would see in Neverland. 

Standing in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by exotic multi-coloured flowers, was a quaint little cottage. Its white plaster walls were covered in ivy and its brown roof had just a hint of green moss on it to give it colour. 

“Do you like it bird?” Peter asked as he led her through her garden “I made it with magic just for you.”

Wendy could only nod her head in disbelief as he led her through the little wooden door inside the house. The house was small, only one room, but was full of comforts she never thought could exist in Neverland. There was a little area meant to be a kitchen, with a small stove and a sink. The dining room had a large table, made of the trunk of a tree, and enough chairs for all of the lost boys to sit at. She had a small living room where a plush carpet lay atop the wooden floor and an upholstered chair, just big enough for two to sit on, sat in the corner. There was also a small bookshelf, filled with books, among which Wendy spotted many of her old favourites. The most amazing part of all of this though, was the bed. In the middle of the room sat a large brass bed, big enough to fit two people. The head board was draped with pure white lace curtains and the pillows and blankets were as white as snow. It was magnificent, probably worth hundreds of pounds in London. 

“You can sleep here now” he said as she looked around the room. “So you won’t cry at night. You do like it don’t you?”

“Yes, Peter,” she replied with a smile. “It’s lovely.”

She was telling the truth. She really did like it. It was the cutest little house she had ever seen and the grandest gift she had ever received. How could she not like it?

“Well then I’ll leave you alone to enjoy it” he said as he let go of the hand her hand. “Goodnight Wendy bird.”

Wendy was too busy admiring all of the beautiful objects in the room to reply. She had never imagined that she would see so many of the comforts of her old home again. She could not stop touching everything, checking to see if they were real. She touched the hard wood of the table, the soft upholstery of the chair, the leather of the book bindings, and the delicate lace of the curtains over the bed. Then she saw something that made her smile drop. Hanging on the wall next to the door was a cross-stitched sampler, much like the ones she had often made at home. Written on that sampler were the words “There’s No Place Like Home.” He had made Neverland her home.


	5. Diamond in the Rough

Wendy slept soundly that first night in her new bed. It was so incredibly soft she could not help but fall asleep the minute her head hit the pillow. She did not cry that night. She no longer felt the desperate longing she used to. Her memories of her home and her family were starting to fade. She was starting to forget little things, the colour of her blanket, the kind of flowers in her garden, and other details. She was even forgetting things like the sound of her parents’ voices. Though she should have felt sadness at the thought of her memories slipping away, she only felt relief. She was never going to be allowed to escape so what was the point of remembering. She was better off letting the pain slip away with the memories. She wanted to live out her captivity in relative peace, free from the burden of the past. She had given in. Pan had won in making Neverland her home and she was just going to have to make the best of it. 

So when Wendy woke up that morning she decided to go about her day as if all of this was normal, as if this really was her home and not her prison. Peter had given her a wardrobe full of new clothes, something she desperately needed. She was still wearing the same nightgown she had arrived on the island in, but now it was dirty and torn. She picked out a new dress from the wardrobe, sky blue with a bright blue sash, and slipped it on. She then went over to her mirror, another gift from Peter, and dressed her hair as best she could. She brushed it and tied it up with a blue bow that matched her dress. It wasn’t perfect, but she felt she could almost fit back in to London society like this. Of course this outfit was horribly impractical for the Neverland wilderness, but she had no intention of leaving her new house anytime soon.   
She picked out a book from her bookshelf and sat down with it on the comfy chair in the corner of the room. She only got a few pages in before she heard a knock on her door. Wendy put down her book and sighed in annoyance, already guessing who was disrupting her. She didn’t want to answer, but she had promised herself she would try to be kinder to him. At least he had the courtesy to knock.   
“Is my little bird enjoying her new house?” he asked as she opened the door. 

“I am not your pet Peter” she answered back “And the polite thing to say would be ‘Hello. May I come in?’ “

It was too late for that. Peter had already invited himself in and was making himself comfortable on the end of her bed. Wendy was even more annoyed by how he acted like he owned the place, and owned her. So she decided to ignore him, maybe then he’d get tired of her and leave her alone. She went back to her seat and picked up her book, determined not to hear a word he said to her. 

“You know you really should show more gratitude towards me,” he said with a smirk. “It is quite a nice gift. Really you ought to owe me a favour after all this. By the way this is a very soft bed, I quite like it. I just might feel like sleeping in it myself sometime. It’s certainly big enough to share. Oh I just remembered. I told the lost boys to feel free to visit you at your new house. I hope you don’t mind.” 

At first Wendy had successfully ignored what he was saying, but that last part had caught her attention. She really did not want the lost boys visiting her. It’s not that she didn’t like them, she just wanted to be left alone. 

“I really don’t think any of them would want to visit me.” She said, her nose still firmly planted in her book.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I think some of them have grown quite fond of you. Well since I’m clearly not wanted here I’ll leave for now. I’ll be back later to escort you to dinner.”

Wendy still did not look up from her book as he left. Inwardly she cheered that her plan to make him go away had worked. Hopefully now she would be left alone for the rest of the day. To her chagrin an later there was again a knock on her door. At first she was going to ignore it. She thought it was Peter coming to bother her again, but the knock this time was different. Peter’s knock was cocky, as if he was doing her a favour by knocking at all, this knock was more timid and unsure. Her curiosity got the better of her and she opened the door. 

“Um… Hello. May I come in?”

It was Felix, standing uncomfortably at her door

“Oh Hello” replied Wendy “I’m sorry it took so long I thought you were Peter.”

“That’s alright. He’s the one who told me to come here anyway. I didn’t think you’d want to be bothered.” 

“Well do come in. I wouldn’t want you getting in trouble for not following orders.”

He came in reluctantly and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. Wendy had always liked Felix. He always seemed genuinely concerned for her well fare, but they had never really talked much. If Peter had to send anyone to bother her she was glad it was him. She had always wanted to get to know him better. He on the other hand looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. He was clearly uncomfortable in the room with her. She gestured for him to sit down on one of the wooden chairs and he did so cautiously. They both sat in uncomfortable silence until Wendy decided to speak.

“I’ve been meaning to thank you Felix. You were always so kind to me, even when I was in a cage.” 

“It was nothing really. I didn’t do much to help you.” He murmured 

She had never seen him look so uncomfortable before. In the jungle he was always at ease, he was like any other animal with in it. In her house he seemed afraid to touch anything. It was like he thought the whole place would shatter if he so much as looked at it. His eyes were on the ground, his arms pressed firmly to his side. Though he had taken her offer of a seat he sat so far on the edge he was practically hovering off of it. Wendy thought maybe she was wrong about him. He was only here because he was ordered to after all. Maybe he did want to get to know her like she wanted to get to know him. Maybe all that time he had felt sorry for her and nothing else. Had she been so blinded by her desire for friendship that she was seeing kindness where there was only pity?

“You know I’m only a girl,” she joked, trying to coax him into liking her. “I don’t bite.”

“Oh I know” he replied, still looking at the floor. “I’ve just never been in such a nice house before.” 

“It’s really nothing fancy.” She said, glad to have finally found a topic of conversation. “My house in London was much nicer. I’m sure yours was too you just don’t remember it” 

“Oh I remember it, it was nothing like this.”

Wendy had never really thought about how the lost boys had gotten to Neverland. She had always assumed they were like her, runaways being kept there against their will. Now she was suddenly curious as to how Felix had ended up here. 

“What was it like?” she asked.

“Well I didn’t really have much of a home.” He said hesitantly. “I grew up in London like you, but not in a house, on the streets. I was an orphan so I slept wherever I could find a warm place where I wouldn’t get caught. The orphanages back then were terrible, children were abused and ignored. I could’ve survived but my younger sister…she couldn’t have. I did everything I could to keep her safe and happy even without a house.”

“Oh you have a sister!” Wendy exclaimed, happy that he was opening up to her. “What’s her name? What’s she like?” 

Felix seemed a bit hurt by the question, but he answered anyway. 

“Her name was Estella. You remind me a bit of her really. You both had spark, both hated being trapped anywhere, and you were both dreamers. She had such an imagination. Always dreaming about how things would get better for us. She liked to tell me about our famous uncle, the Duke of something or other, who was desperately searching for us so he could adopt us, and how when he did we would never want for anything again. All the riches and luxuries of the world would be at our feet. Of course we didn’t have any uncle searching for use, it was only pretend, but she liked to dream and I liked to play along. Sometimes she would describe our future so vividly that I almost believed it would really happen. But it never did, it was just a fairy tale.” 

“You said she’ was’” said Wendy, her curiosity getting the better of her manners. “What happened to her? Pan didn’t kill her did he?”

“No of course not!” replied Felix, angry that she could ever think such a thing. “Peter has done more for me than anyone I’ve ever known! She died of pneumonia during a hard winter. After that I didn’t really have anything left to live for. I thought about throwing myself into the Thames to join her because I didn’t know what else to do. The night after she died I went to Kensington garden, it was always her favourite place. Even covered in snow it was the most beautiful landscape in all of London. And I just sat there, trying to figure out what to do with myself. Then out of nowhere Pan appeared in front of me. He told me he was looking for lost boys to join him on his island, to work for him, but also to keep him company. That’s exactly what I was, lost. I had no place to go and no one to turn to. So I went with him and I found the most magical place I had ever seen where there was no winter ever. I finally found my home. Peter was the first person to notice me, to offer to help me, and he did help me in so many ways. I’ll always be grateful to him. That’s why I’m so loyal to him, because I owe him so much. I owe him my life.” 

Wendy wasn’t sure how to respond to his story. She felt awful that she had asked him so many questions. It was obviously still a very uncomfortable topic for him. She was still glad he had felt comfortable enough to tell her about his sister though. It was the most she had ever heard him say. The way he talked about her made it clear that he had loved her very much. She couldn’t imagine what she would do if her parents died, or her brothers. Even worse she thought of how her family must feel now. Surely they thought she was dead and they were probably just as devastated as Felix. Her mother probably cried for her every night. It broke her heart to even think about it, but there was nothing she could do. She was never getting off the island. 

Even more distressing was how this story reflected on Pan. Wendy had always thought of him as a demon or a pest, but to Felix he was a saviour. It was an idea that didn’t quite fit into her picture of him, but she liked it. She was glad to know it was possible for him to help others. Possible for him to care about someone but himself. Slowly her hard heart was softening towards Peter. She no longer thought he was a monster. Yet, he wasn’t an angel either. He was a riddle she couldn’t figure out, but she was becoming more and more determined to try. 

“So he does have a heart then?” she asked Felix.

“Yes, he does.” He replied “He gave a lot of the lost boys the home they never had. Don’t underestimate him though. He is ruthless when he’s trying to get his hands on something he wants. I’d watch out if I was you. Pan never fails.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, confused. “Why would I have to watch out?”

“I’m not allowed to say” he said, suddenly on his guard. “Any way I really should be going. Goodbye.”

With that he quickly got up and walked out the door, slamming it behind him.  
Felix had given Wendy a lot to think about, but before she could fully sort out her thoughts there was another knock on her door. 

“Come in Peter”, she said with a sigh. 

“Glad we’re starting to understand how things work around here.” He said as he strode into the room. “So how was your little visit with Felix?”

“It was just fine Peter. Now what do you want?”

“It’s time for me to escort you to dinner.” He said putting his arm out, as if he was a proper English gentleman. “I hope you have a story prepared.”

“As a matter of fact I think I do” she said, laying her arm on top of his.

She wasn’t sure if he was trying to please her or tease her, but she knew his manners were only an act. She would play his game though, at least for now. It wasn’t the worst game he’d ever played with her, in fact she rather liked it. It was a shame she couldn’t rely on him to be so well mannered all the time.   
Soon she was back at the campfire telling her story to the lost boys. 

“Once upon a time in a faraway land there lived a poor orphan boy named Aladdin. Aladdin lived in the streets but he always dreamed of marrying a rich princess and living in a palace. Though no one believed in his dream he never gave up hope. Even though every day of his life was a struggle he still believed that things would get better. He was a diamond in the rough, a poor boy with a heart of gold. His belief was a quality that would serve him well in his life. One day a sorcerer approached the boy with a proposition. He needed someone young and smart to retrieve a special lamp for him from within a magic cave. If Aladdin did this he would give him all the riches his heart desired. This was the chance Aladdin had always been waiting for so he took it without a second thought. He entered the cave and easily avoided all the traps within to get to the lamp, but before he could leave the cave the exit suddenly closed. In his excitement to receive his riches he had set off a trap without realizing it. Aladdin would never receive his reward. For the first time he gave up hope in his dream of having a better life. He thought he was foolish for ever believing it was possible. In his despair and frustration he started furiously rubbing the lamp he had been sent to retrieve. Suddenly a magic genie came out of the lamp. The genie told Aladdin that he would grant three wishes to whoever rubbed his lamp. Finally Aladdin’s dream could come true. He could have the life he wanted. For his first wish Aladdin asked the genie to help him escape the cave. The genie snapped his fingers and in an instant they were back in the city Aladdin lived in. The city stood at the foot of a palace and in this palace lived a beautiful young princess that Aladdin had fallen in love with. He had always wished to marry her but knew he was too poor. So he asked the genie to make him a rich enough to marry the princess. The genie snapped his fingers and it was so. Aladdin went to the palace and was received as an important visitor. Soon the princess fell in love with him as well, not because of his money but because of his kind heart. They were soon married and they lived together in the palace in bliss. Aladdin had everything he had ever wanted, but he still had one wish left. So he asked the genie what his greatest dream was. ‘To be free of my lamp’ replied the genie. ‘Well then that is my wish, for your freedom. You gave me everything I ever wanted, now it’s you turn. Thank you.’ And so both Aladdin and the genie had their dreams come true and lived happily ever after.” 

When she had finished her story Wendy looked across the campfire at Felix. He was smiling at her, a true, genuine smile. He knew that the story was for him. She wasn’t entirely positive but she thought that perhaps she had finally made a friend in Neverland.


	6. Pride, Prejudice, and Goose Tales

Wendy had been on the island for quite a while now. She wasn’t entirely certain of the exact amount, but she knew it had been a long time. She had tried to count the stories she had told during her time there, but she had lost track of even that. Often she forgot which stories she had told the boys and began reciting one they had already heard. One of the boys would quickly remind her of this and she would try to hide her embarrassment as she scrambled to find a new one. She hated when that happened, but she couldn’t help it, her days in Neverland blurred together. She had lost all sense of time. 

She had been there so long that she started to feel she belonged there, and the lost boys treated her like she did. Her friendship with Felix had grown and he often stopped by for a chat, or for one of the treats that magically appeared on Wendy’s table while she wasn’t looking. Tootles, the youngest and sweetest of the boys, would often invite her out for a walk. Though Neverland was terrifying at night, in the bright sunshine it was really quite beautiful and Wendy enjoyed these walks very much. The two of them would talk and collect flowers and shiny rocks as they went. When they got back they would use them to decorate her house with them. Her house had really become rather homey, always full of fresh flowers and decorations. It was also always full of visitors as all of the lost boys came around to enjoy Wendy’s company at one time or another. 

Of course her most frequent visitor was Peter. He came at least once a day, not counting when he was escorting her to the campfire for dinner. Some days he would hang around all day, and no amount of hinting from Wendy that he must have something better to do would get rid of him. His visits were not completely awful, but they could still be annoying, especially when she wanted some time to herself. But she learned to deal with the annoyance, and sometimes the visits were almost enjoyable. 

It was on the day of one of these visits that some very important changes were made to Wendy’s place in Neverland.

Wendy woke up to the sound of a loud knocking on her door. It was Peter. He was there much earlier than she would’ve liked. She didn’t even bother to get up out of bed, he always let himself in anyway. Maybe if she pretended to be asleep he’d go away. Unlikely, but worth a try. She rolled over to her side and buried her head in her pillows, hoping she’d be allowed to remain there.  
“Good morning bird” he said as he strode across the room to her bed. “Oh, but I see you’re still asleep. We’ll just have to do something about that won’t we?”   
He chuckled as he leaned over her bed to check to see if she was asleep, she responded by burying her face further into the pillows. 

“Hmmm what can I do to wake you up.” He wondered “I could use some pixie dust to bring your bed to the sea… Or maybe send one of the wildcats in here, they’re pretty loud…” she still refused to respond. “Oh I know, I’ve always wondered if you were ticklish. Maybe I should find out.”

At that Wendy shot up out of bed, ready to smack any roving hands out of the way.

“Don’t you dare touch me Peter Pan.” She snapped at him.

“Oh someone’s rather cranky this morning.” He said with a laugh. “I had a feeling that would wake you up.” 

“I hate you.” She glared him. 

“Well that’s nothing new.” He rolled his eyes. “I was bored this morning and I figured I should go keep my pet bird company. So I let myself in, only to find that you had the nerve to be asleep when I wanted to visit you. It’s really quiet rude to sleep when you have a guest you know. Didn’t you learn that as part of your fancy lessons?”

Wendy rolled her eyes right back at him “You’re not a guest, guest implies an invitation, you’re an intruder. I’m sorry I have to sleep, my life doesn’t revolve around you.”

“Oh but, it does. Everyone’s life revolves around mine here, everyone’s life belongs to me.”

She couldn’t think of any way to respond. She of all people knew how true that was. So she only glared at him as she kicked the covers off and got out of bed, trying unsuccessfully to kick him in the process. 

“Would you at least be kind enough to leave for a few minutes so I can get changed?” she said. “I spent far too long in this night dress while I’ve been here.”

“Nah, I think I’m comfortable right where I am.” He said, as he plopped down on her favourite chair and began to lounge on it.

“Peter, out now!” she pointed to the door as she said it like she would with a dog or a small child.

“You really do have some nerve to try to boss me around.” He said smiling and shaking his head in disbelief. “Well I’ll be nice and play along. I’ll be standing outside your door. You have two minutes before I invite myself back in.”

Wendy held in a frustrated scream as he walked out of her cottage and began to count out loud. She changed as quickly as she could and just managed to slip on the first dress that came at hand, her sky blue dress. She was just smoothing out her skirt as he walked back in. 

“Is that better for you bird?”

“So how long do you plan on sticking around here?” she asked inwardly praying that his stay would be short. 

“I don’t know. As long as I feel like it. All day perhaps.”

“So you’re just going to stay here and watch me? I’m not that entertaining you know.”

“See that’s where you’re wrong,” he smirked at her. “I find you very entertaining, especially when you’re angry.”

She didn’t bother to respond. Instead she walked over to her bookshelf and picked out something to read in order to better ignore Peter’s presence. She deliberated for a bit and then picked out one of her favourites. She sat down in her chair and began to read as if Peter wasn’t even there.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before he decided to squeeze in next to her on the chair and look over her shoulder. 

“What are you reading?” he asked, desperate for her attention.

“Pride and Prejudice.” She answered still trying to ignore him.

“What’s it about?” 

She sighed “It’s about about a really intelligent and interesting girl who meets a really arrogant, stuck up, annoying, and proud boy and hates him.” She hoped he would take the hint.

“And then what happens?” 

She sighed again. “And then he falls in love with her and learns to change and becomes a better person and she grows to love him as well. It’s not very realistic, but it’s sweet.”   
“You and you’re sappy love stories” he rolled his eyes at her. “That’s all you ever seem to read.”

“Because love is a beautiful thing, the most beautiful thing in the world, something I’ll never get here so I’ve learned to live vicariously through the characters in my books.”

If Wendy hadn’t had her face buried in her book she might’ve seen a change in Peter’s face. She might’ve seen how it went from playfully joking to sad and serious the moment she said those words. But she didn’t, so his next actions seemed like nothing but another attempt to annoy her.

“Here let me see, maybe I can figure out what the appeal of this love thing is.”

He leaned towards her to grab the book out of her hands. She saw his attempt and tried to hold the book out of reach, but his arms were much longer than hers. He grabbed hold of it and tried to yank it out of her hands, but she wasn’t giving up without a fight. So he tried a different strategy, he grabbed her arm and tried to pull it away from the book. Wendy tried to pull away but he was too strong. He was very strong actually. She’d never really noticed those muscles in his arms before. They were quite nice really. She hated to admit it but having those strong arms in such close proximity made her melt inside just a little bit. But this was Peter. He was annoying. There was nothing attractive about him. Those nice arms came with a terrible personality. She had to snap herself out of it and remember who she was dealing with.   
But it was too late for that as Peter took advantage of her moment of distraction and grabbed the book out of her hands. 

“Peter!” she yelled half shocked half laughing as he flipped to the beginning of the book.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” He read out loud. “Well that’s stupid. How can that be true? I’m a single man with a fortune and I’d never want to get married.”

“It’s supposed to be ironic.” She rolled her eyes at him. “And I would hardly consider you a rich eligible bachelor. Don’t think so highly of yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Peter mocked being offended “Aren’t I charming and handsome? And after all I do have my own private island.”

“Please give me my book back.” 

“No I’m trying to figure out what makes this so much more interesting than me. Let’s see ‘However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.’ Really why do you like this? It’s so boring. I bet there isn’t even any sword fights in it.” He flipped through the pages to look for one as he spoke. 

“Don’t insult Jane Austen” snapped Wendy. “She’s the greatest author to ever live. And if you’re so desperate for sword fights than why don’t you go read Shakespeare and leave me alone.” 

“Who is this Jane lady? And Shake what? I have no idea what you’re saying bird.” He laughed at her.

“Oh I forgot you’d actually have had to have gone to school to know who they are. Actually I’m rather surprised you know how to read at all.”

“I’ve told you bird. I like a good story. And before I had you around I had to go through all that effort to read them myself. Glad that’s over with.”

“So my only real use to you is allowing you to be lazy? Just wonderful.” She huffed. 

“No,” he chuckled “You have other uses… It’s fun to annoy you.” 

“That’s not much better.” She mumbled 

“Fine how about I let you read this Pride and Prejudice book out loud to me. Would that make you feel any better?”

“I thought you thought it was stupid and boring.” She said refusing to look at him, knowing he was wearing his most charming grin to try to trick her in to doing what he wanted. 

“Well maybe it would be less boring if you read it.”

“Fine” she sighed, taking the book out of his hands. “But you have to promise not to interrupt, at all, for any reason.”

“Absolutely, I promise.” He said, still wearing that charming grin.

He broke that promise almost immediately. For hours things went like this. Wendy read aloud, Peter inserted his own comments whenever he felt like it, Wendy scolded him and made a remark right back, the two of them fought for a bit, and then eventually got back to the book. This happened over and over again. Not much reading was actually done, but they were so involved with the book that they barely noticed it was getting dark. 

“Well Miss Bennett. I believe it’s time for us to head to the dining room shall I escort you?” Peter said. 

“What did you say about Pride and Prejudice being boring earlier?” said Wendy with a laugh.

“It wasn’t terrible. I’ll still never see the appeal of that love thing. I would never listen that much to a girl.”

Wendy sighed and rolled her eyes at him as she took the hand Peter was offering out to her. 

“And that’s why I won’t call you Mr. Darcy.”

He led her out the door and into the forest. Wendy knew the island well enough to travel to the clearing on her own now, but she never bothered to tell Peter that. It would only make him angry. He liked to pretend Wendy was helpless, however often she proved that to be far from the truth. 

When they arrived at the clearing the lost boys were already there eager to begin. Peter had a rule that he had to have the first bite. Until then the lost boys would have to wait to eat, no matter how hungry they were. Sometimes when he was in a bad mood, or when he just felt like playing a game, he would make them wait for hours, lifting his fork until it was just hovering in front of his mouth before changing his mind and putting it back down over and over again. On days like these he seemed to get pleasure from their moans of frustration. Luckily for them today was not one of those days, his time spent with Wendy had put Peter in an excellent mood. He immediately filled his plate with food and sat down at his usual spot at the head of the circle. He had barely been sitting down a second before he took a huge mouthful of food, scarfing it down hungrily but happily. This was the cue for the other boys to eat, and they too scarfed their food down like animals. In her old life Wendy would have been appalled by the lack of manners shown in front of a lady, but here in Neverland she had gotten used to it, but not so used to it that she was ready to eat like an animal herself. As they ate she went over to the pile of food the boys had set out for the meal. While the boys had grabbed whatever they saw first and piled it on their plate, Wendy was more discerning in her tastes. She looked for what looked best, which berries looked juiciest, which meats looked the least burnt. Really the lost boys were terrible cooks, Wendy could do much better. She really should discuss that idea with Peter some time. Make herself useful and the meals a bit more appealing. But it was too late for that now, so she made her choices, taking proper small portions and putting them on her plate neatly. She went to sit down with her food in her usual spot across from Peter. 

Where you sat at dinner was an expression of where your place was in the hierarchy of the group. Since Wendy had been there the shortest amount of time she was the lowest rung and the least trustworthy, so she had to sit in the spot where Peter could most easily watch her. Tootles, as the youngest and most naïve of the boys got the spot next to her. Felix, the most loyal of his followers, his second in command, got the prime spot, on Peter’s right hand side. The seat on Peter’s left side had been empty for as long as Wendy had been there. Felix told her that once there was another who had sat there, one Peter had trusted as much as him, but they left, or some said got kicked out before Wendy’s arrival. He knew more about this then he told her, but she could never get the full story from him. All she knew was that the spot had remained empty ever since. Peter refused to choose another that he trusted enough to sit there and it seemed like there would be a gap at his left hand side forever.   
As Wendy sat down at her spot she saw Peter motion for her to come to him. She sighed, she was hungry and wanted to eat, but she couldn’t say no to him. 

“Sit here instead” he said as she walked towards him.

There was an audible gasp from the other boys as he said the words. He had finally done it. He had chosen someone to sit next to him. Some of the veteran lost boys looked jealous, they had been longing for that spot for decades, but they knew better to say anything against Pan. Rufio even seemed to look at her with a little anger. But they loved Wendy, they had accepted her into their group, and the realised that Peter considered her to be something special. After all he had built her a house, and no one else ever got special treatment like that. So they accepted this new arrangement without too much bitterness. For Wendy’s part she was a bit reluctant to accept this new seat. She had liked her old one. She felt safe there next to Tootles. Sitting next to Peter felt uncomfortable, like he expected something from her because of it. Like he felt he would be better able to control her if she was by his side. Wendy had learned not to hate Peter, but she did not trust him, not enough to eat next to him. She had imagined he felt the same way, but she was no longer so sure since he had just offered her the spot meant for one of his favourites. Reluctant as she was, she did what she was told and sat down next to him. 

It was a strange feeling being on the other side of the campfire. Tootles looked sad that he had lost his new companion. Wendy was sad to leave him, but she had no choice. So she ate her dinner in silence, pretending not to notice how near she was to Peter and the nervous feeling she got in her stomach because of it. She had almost completely lost her appetite her stomach was jumping around so much, but she could feel his eyes watching her, making sure she ate, so she made herself eat a decent amount. 

“I think it’s time for tonight’s story” Peter announced as she put down her food. 

Wendy cleared her throat and began “Today I’m going to tell you the story of Puss in Boots. Once upon a time there was a miller with three sons…”

 

It wasn’t the best story she had ever told, she was a bit too uncomfortable to make it really good, but the boys didn’t seem to mind. Any story was good to them, so long as it had a little blood and guts in it. When she finished the boys had the usual sleepy looks on their faces. The only ones still fully awake now were her and Peter. Peter was never tired and he was the one who always walked her back to her house. The boys were really quite cute she thought as she looked around at them. They reminded her a bit of her brothers in the nursery, what she could remember of them anyway. 

“Wendy where do you get your stories from?” asked Tootles quietly

The question surprised Wendy, she had thought he had already fallen asleep. At the sound of Tootle’s question all the boys perked up. 

“Yeah I’ve always wondered that.” Said Slightly, one of the other boys

“Even I’d like to know that” Felix murmured from the other side of Peter. 

“Well that story in particular came from Mother Goose” 

“I know what a goose is,” said Tootles “But what’s a mother?”

“I know what a mother is, I had one once. I think, or maybe that was a pet rat, I can’t remember.” Said Slightly, he was not much brighter than Tootles, though he claimed otherwise.

Wendy felt Peter tense next to her at this new turn in the conversation. She paid no mind to him though, she liked that the boys came to her with questions. 

“Well a mother is a girl…” 

“Like you!” cried Tootles.

“Yes like me, and she has children, sometimes boys”

“Like us!” said Slightly not to be outdone. 

“Yes, like you.” She continued “And she takes care of those children. She cooks for them, cleans their faces when they get dirty, heals their cuts and scrapes, answers their questions, makes sure they go to bed on time, and she tells them stories of course.”

“So you’re our mother?” asked Tootles.

“Well not exactly…”

“Can you be our mother?”

“Well …”

Wendy looked over at Peter. His jaw was tense and his eyes dark, the easy grin he had had during story time was gone. Clearly he did not approve of this new idea. 

“Well the thing about mothers is you have to obey them and I don’t think Peter would approve of you obeying anyone but him.”

“No that’s alright,” said Peter standing up, that dark look still on his face. “If you’re going to play mother than I’m going to play father and everyone knows that the father is obeyed by both the children and the mother.”

“I didn’t think you knew anything about mothers and fathers” said Wendy with a hint of bitterness in her voice. 

Peter never answered. Instead he took Wendy’s hand and pulled her up out of her seat. 

“Well boys it’s time for your mother to get going. Say goodnight”

“Goodnight mother” cried some of the younger boys, the older boys just smiled at her. 

“Goodnight boys” she sighed reluctant to leave.

She followed Peter back into the forest. They walked in silence for a bit until finally Peter decided to speak up.

“So if I’m father and your mother does that mean we’re married?”

“Hardly” she scoffed.

“But I thought you wanted to get married Wendy bird?”

“Not to you. As I’ve said before you’re no Mr. Darcy.”

He was quite again. Probably thinking of another witty comeback. Wendy didn’t really care. She was in no mood for talking to him anymore.

“You know I never did keep my promise” he said, breaking the silence again.

“And what promise have you ever made to me?”

“I promised I’d take you on an adventure. You know teach you to fly, see fairies and mermaids.”

“I don’t think I want to see any mermaids and besides did you really intend to keep that promise?”

“Oh yes, I am nothing if not a man of my word. I fully intended to take you to the mermaids.”

There was an awkward silence as they both remembered that Peter’s original intention was to kill Wendy the moment they met. Even when he was trying to be nice she was still inevitably reminded of the darkness within him.

“Well anyway, expect me to keep my promise soon. I’ll bring you on an adventure. No mermaids though I swear.”

He turned around to face her with his hand upon his heart. In the darkness of the jungle she could just make out his face. He looked surprisingly sincere. Demon that he was he still had developed some sort of code of honour in this barbaric land. 

“Alright” she sighed “If you want to take me on an adventure you can. Why I’m trusting you I’ll never know but I will agree to it.”

“Good”

They had arrived at her house. He walked her all the way up to the door. They just stood there in silence not sure exactly what to say to each other.

“Well goodnight” said Wendy, the manners ingrained within her taking over.

“Goodnight, Wendy bird.” He whispered. “And remember I’m taking you on an adventure I promise.”

Those words brought to her a mixture of dread and excitement, both of which she tried to ignore as she watched him walk away from her cottage.


	7. The Boy Who Flew Too Close to the Sun

Wendy woke up bright and early the next day. She knew Peter well enough to realize that he was not a very patient boy. If he wanted to take her on an adventure he wasn’t going to wait around to do it, it was going to be today. He was clearly keener on the idea than she was. For whatever reason he thought it was the most brilliant thing ever thought of, but then again didn’t he think that about all of his ideas. Wendy on the other hand did not particularly care for it. Personally she thought every day in Neverland was more than enough of an adventure. With dodging jungle cats and avoiding mermaids she didn’t think she needed that much more excitement. There was no use telling him though, he was going to take her on an adventure and that was that. 

Unfortunately Peter hadn’t bothered to tell her exactly what they were doing that day so she had no idea what to wear. She spent a few minutes just staring at the inside of the wardrobe Peter had given her. There was a lot of clothing inside, but nothing really seemed right. It was all beautiful dresses with lace and ribbons. Not exactly what you’d wear if you were to go exploring a cave or fighting Pirates. If that was what Peter had planned, which was possible, she really had no clue. Normally she loved those dresses, but today they just didn’t seem right. The heroines in her books always managed to miraculously procure a pair of trousers just as their adventure began. Wendy had never worn trousers, they were improper for a lady, but she had always been curious what it would be like. That was what she should wear today, that was what was needed for an adventure. She wished so much she had a pair of trousers. And when she wished it they appeared, because that was the kind of thing that happened in Neverland. She was always forgetting how magical the place was. It certainly made her day easier. 

A pair of black trousers had appeared in her closet. They were the kind of thing that she had often seen pirates wearing in the illustrations of her storybooks. To match it there was a blue button down shirt, the kind she had often seen her father wear to work, only smaller, more suited to her proportions. She put them on and walked around her room a bit, getting used to her new garments. She liked the feeling of them, her movements were freer and her strides were now much longer than her old dresses allowed. This would be much more practical for whatever Peter had planned today. 

She was just fixing her hair when he knocked on the door. As usual she didn’t bother to get up and answer, he was just going to let himself in anyway. She was busy putting her hair up in a ponytail. She felt it was the perfect hairstyle for adventures. It kept her hair out of the way while still allowing her golden curls to run wild down her back. To top it off she tied a blue ribbon in her hair. She may have been dressed like a boy, but she would never lose her appreciation for hair ribbons. 

“Well hello Wendy bird.” Peter said as he strode into the house “Glad to see we’ve learned our lesson about sleeping.”

“Hello Peter.” She said quite cheerily, her new trousers had put her in a surprisingly good mood. “Are you taking me on that adventure today?” 

“Well I hadn’t decided yet, but now I think I have to since you look all prepared for it.” He gestured rather awkwardly to her legs.

“Aren’t they nice?” she twirled around to show them off. 

He laughed at her excitement. “I don’t know, I think I prefer you in a dress actually.”

“Well too bad. This is what I’m wearing today.”

He just shook his head and laughed, always amazed when she had the courage to contradict him.

“So are you going to tell me where we are going?” asked Wendy.

“No, you’re going to have to guess” he replied, opening the door and gesturing for her to follow him out. 

“Of course, another one of your games.” She sighed as she walked out the door. “You know it would be nice if just once you were straightforward and told me things instead of making me guess them.”

“Come on don’t be boring, bird.” He grabbed her hand and started to lead her through the jungle. “Start guessing.”

“Fine.” She gave into him “Hmmm are you going to take me to see the pirates?”

“No.”

“I should have known that was wrong. You would be too afraid that they’d convince me to join their crew.”

“Ha, I’d never be afraid of the pirates doing anything. They know you’re mine.”

She hated when he said that, but she was not going to start a fight. She just rolled her eyes at him. “Well then are you taking me to the caves to look for treasure? I would like some new jewelry.”

“Not that either.”

“I really don’t know Peter.” She had quickly tired of this game.

“Bird, you really are a terrible guesser.” He laughed at her. “Well lucky for you we’re here.”

They had reached a clearing. In the centre was probably the largest tree Wendy had ever seen in her life. It seemed to glow with a faint golden light as if it was lit from the inside. At the trunk of the tree ran a small brook that babbled and shimmered in the sunshine. The trees surrounding this clearing were almost as incredible as the one in the centre. Every season was represented here. There were some trees with pink cherry blossoms, others with bright orange leaves. Some were a vibrant green, while others were a frosty white. Yet this was still not the most amazing part of the clearing. What really caught Wendy’s attention were the little balls of light that floated all around her. Each seemed to be a different colour, green, blue, pink, purple, silver, gold, and every other colour you could imagine. Even though they were in broad daylight, the lights still shone incredibly brightly, so brightly that she couldn’t tell what they were. 

“What is this place?” she asked, her voice hushed in amazement.

“This is Pixie Hollow.” He whispered from behind her. “This is where the fairies live.” 

Wendy had always wanted to see a fairy. When she was little she would run around her garden searching for them. She had been certain that if she just looked under the right leaf she would find one, sitting there gracefully its tiny wings fluttering. She never did manage to see one, but she had never stopped believing. Now here they were right in front of her.

“Can I see one up close?” she whispered.

“Just pick one out and I’ll bring it to you.”

She pointed to one of the pink lights floating on top of a nearby flower. Peter went over and scooped it up in his hands with ease. 

“Hold out your hands.” He said. 

She did so and he gently placed the fairy in her hands. It was as light as a feather. It hardly felt like holding anything at all. Up close Wendy could see that the pink light was actually a dainty woman, with soft pink wings and a dress made of flower petals. She looked rather angry to have been scooped up by Peter, but even when she was angry she was gorgeous. 

“Look at her.” She whispered. “She looks so pretty. Just like a rose.”

“That one’s a vain one.” Peter laughed. “She likes you now that you’ve called her pretty. See how she’s showing off.”

The fairy had gone from stomping her feet in anger to posing and preening in Wendy’s palm. 

“Well of course she likes to hear she’s pretty. If I was as pretty as her I’d want to hear about it all the time.” 

She heard Peter chuckle from behind her.

“What’s so funny?” she felt a little hurt by his laughter. “I’m not self-centred if that’s what you’re laughing at.”

“No that’s not it…” he trailed off “So are you ready for the next part of our adventure?”

“There’s more?” she said turning away from the fairy to look at Peter. “I thought the fairies were the adventure.” 

“Of course there’s more. This is Neverland there’s always room for more adventure. But first we need some pixie dust.”

“Oh” she looked down at the fairy in her hands. She had been tapping her foot impatiently, but now that she was once again the centre of attention she was happy. “You’re not going to hurt her are you?”

“No, we don’t need her. We’re going to use this.” He held up a small bottle hanging from a cord around his neck.

“Oh” was all she could say as she marvelled at the faintly glowing Pixie dust. Meanwhile the fairy became fed up with being ignored and flew away. 

“What are we going to do with it?” she finally asked

“Fly of course. What else would I want my Wendy Bird to do?”

“Oh really Peter you mean it?” she exclaimed. “I’ve always wanted to fly!”

“And you will. Now close your eyes and hold still.”

Wendy did as she was told. She faintly heard Peter’s breathing as he came close behind. She could feel the heat coming off his body. She had that fluttery feeling again, from both excitement and nerves. She then felt a slight tingling sensation come over her entire body. That must have been the Pixie dust. 

“Alright.” He whispered in her ear. “Keep your eyes closed and think of a lovely thought, it can be anything you want so long as it’s wonderful.”

That part was easy. Flying would be her lovely thought. Flying free like a bird. No restrictions on where she could go or what she could do. Never having to let her feet touch the ground. Seeing everything from high up above and really getting to know Neverland in a way that was impossible to do from the ground. What a lovely thought it was. Before she knew it, it was becoming a reality as her feet slowly lifted off the ground.

“Now open your eyes.” Said Peter.

She did so and saw that she was really truly flying! It wasn’t just in her head it wasn’t just a dream she was flying! 

“There you go see how easy it is. Now follow me!” Peter shouted before taking off.

She was unsteady at first, dipping low when she wanted to go higher, going left when she wanted to go right, and flying in an incredibly wobbly line. But soon she got the hang of it. It became easy and natural to her, just like running. It felt like she had been doing it her whole life. She couldn’t keep up with Peter though. He was much too fast. He had clearly had a lot of practice. 

“Not bad Wendy bird, you really take after your name. But you’ll never catch me!” He called back from way ahead of her.

“Oh we shall see about that.” Yelled Wendy. 

They raced like this for a long time. All over Neverland. Flying above the jungle trees and over the many lagoons. They even slid down a rainbow! They flew around until sunset. Neverland sunsets were always beautiful, but from up in the sky they were breath-taking

“Would you like to go see the fairies one more time?” asked Peter as they watched the sunset. “They’re beautiful at night.”

“Oh yes!”

So they flew back down to Pixie Hollow.

Things had changed there now. There was a ring of mushrooms, a fairy circle, in the middle of the clearing. A crowd of fairies, now glowing even brighter in the falling darkness, was crowded around the circle. In 

the centre were two fairies, a handsome sparrow man and a beautiful fairy woman all in white. 

“A fairy wedding!” exclaimed Wendy. “How beautiful.”

Peter was silent. 

“Oh I’ve always loved weddings!” Wendy said oblivious to this sudden change in Peter’s mood. “Can we stay and watch?”

He nodded silently. 

“I can’t wait to get older and get married” she said without thinking. “Won’t it be wonderful? I hope you’ll come.” 

“Let’s go.” Shouted Pan suddenly grabbing Wendy’s wrist and yanking her away from the fairies. 

“No Peter I want to watch!” she shouted trying to pull her wrist out of his grasp. 

“You do what I say!” He yanked her armed so hard she thought it might pull out of her socket.

“No! I am watching the wedding. You cannot tell me what to do!” she started to cry from the pain as she tried futilely to escape his grasp. 

“Your mine!” he practically growled. He pulled her arm so hard she lost her balance and fell on the jungle floor, the dirt mixing with the tears streaming down her face. 

“Stop saying that.” She cried “I’m not your possession. I’m a person, a living breathing person. You don’t own me. I hate when you say that. I hate you!”

“Just get up and leave.” He mumbled angrily, finally letting go of her wrist. 

She scrambled to get up, silently wiping her eyes. He turned her back on her and walked out of the clearing. She followed behind him. They were silent as they left the now disrupted wedding and headed to the campfire for dinner. 

She didn’t regret what she had said for a minute. She refused to let him own her. He may have her trapped there forever, but she would not surrender her independence to him. She should be allowed to do whatever she wanted in Neverland. What was his problem anyway? Was watching a fairy wedding really such a crime? He was the one who took her to Pixie Hollow in the first place. She was angry with him, but more than anything she was hurt. Today he had made her feel so happy and free. Flying was the most amazing thing she had ever done. And then he ruined it. He took away all that freedom he had given her the minute he yanked on her arm. It was a painful reminder that she was still under his control. She could not believe she had let herself be convinced she had any freedom. He was her captor, however nice he was to her, and she would not forget that again. 

She sat next to Peter at dinner like the prisoner she was, but she refused to talk to him. They ate in uncomfortable silence. Even the lost boys, who were practically oblivious to everything, noticed the tension at the head of the campfire. If Wendy hadn’t been so angry at Peter she may have even laughed at the exchange she heard. 

“What’s wrong with mother and father?” whispered Tootles to Slightly. 

“I think they had a fight” Slightly whispered back rather loudly. 

“Not another one.” Whispered Rufio from the other side of the camp fire. 

“I think it’s time for our story.” Said Pan angrily.

“Fine,” replied Wendy coldly. “Once there was a man named Daedalus who was a brilliant inventor. Daedalus’ greatest dream was to fly. He spent years studying the birds in order to discover how it could be done. Eventually he came up with an idea. He collected feathers from the birds and stuck them together with wax so that he had a pair of wings of his own. That should be exactly what he needed to allow him to fly. The only thing left for him to do was test them out. He attached them to his arms and went to the highest cliff in the land. He got a running start and then he jumped right off. As he was falling he flapped his wings and began to fly. He had done it! His greatest dream was realized, he was flying. He spent a lot of time perfecting his flying skills and soon he was just as good as the birds. Everyone in the land knew of him as the bird man. He became rich and famous and married a beautiful woman who he loved very much. Soon he had a son who he named Icarus. Icarus grew up watching his father flying and dreamed of the day that he would be able to do the same. His father would not allow him to do so until he was much older and wiser as flying was difficult and there were certain rules one must follower. Then came the day of Icarus’s 16th birthday. This was the day his father had promised him he would learn how to fly. His father gave him his very own pair of wings made of the same feathers and wax. He gave him all the instructions on how to fly, how to turn, how to land, and one more important thing. ‘There is one rule that you must never forget” his father said to him at the end of his lesson ‘Never fly too close to the sun.’ Icarus agreed eagerly. He was so excited to finally fly. His father took him to the cliff and there he got a running start and jumped off. He was flying! Just like his father before him. He flew everywhere doing tricks and showing off. He decided he should see how high he could fly. So he flapped his wings hard and flew closer and closer to the sun. But the closer he got to the sun the more the wax on his wings melted. He lost more and more of his feathers until there was nothing left of his wings. Icarus realized what he had done too late. He fell to the sky and landed in the ocean. Though he had learned to fly, he never learned to swim and so he sank right to the bottom and died. And that is the story of the boy who flew too close to the sun.” 

When Wendy’s story ended there was nothing but silence. The boys were asleep and Peter was brooding next to her. He acted as if she had done something wrong. He was the one who acted like a monster for no reason. He was the one who was keeping her prisoner. Well she was no longer going to act like some sort of domestic pet. She was going to do what she wanted. 

“I can walk back to my cottage by myself” she said coldly getting up from her seat.

“Fine” he said not looking at her. 

“And you had better not dare to come to my cottage tomorrow. I never want to talk to you again. I will keep up my end of our bargain but that’s it.” 

With that she turned her back on him and disappeared deep into the jungle.


	8. The Flower that Blooms in Adversity

Wendy’s mother had always told her never to go to bed angry. If she did she would only wake up cranky the next day. That was exactly what happened the morning after she fought with Pan. The hours of sleep had done nothing to change her mood. She was just as angry as before. Maybe even angrier, since she had all of that time to stew. Either way her mother was right, she woke up the next morning cranky, but also defiant. 

She refused to be Pan’s pet any longer. She was going to do what she wanted and she was going to do it alone. She would have as much freedom as she possibly could and no one was going to stop her. She may be stuck on this miserable island forever, but she was going to live her life the way she wanted to.

Surprisingly she did not have a single unwanted visitor that morning. She had predicted that Pan would not be brave enough to face her wrath. For all his big talk even he knew he should be afraid of a girl and her rage. He didn’t even send any of the lost boys to try to smooth things over. Of course they knew better than to come on their own when Wendy was in a bad mood. Felix was too smart for that and Tootles, though he was naïve, was not brave enough to try to convince her too forgive Peter. She was glad they had left her alone though. She loved them like family, but she needed her space. She wanted to be independent. She had never been given the chance before. Peter had been leading her around on a leash from the minute she set foot on the beach. 

She decided she should begin her new independence with the biggest act of defiance she could think of. There were two places in Neverland that Peter had banned her from ever setting foot in. She figured it was time for her to go explore them. The first was Pirate Cove. Wendy had never been afraid of pirates, she actually found them quite fascinating, but getting to their ship involved swimming and swimming involved mermaids. Even when trying to defy Pan she still found the mermaids terrifying. She decided she would start with the other place instead, Brave Cliff. Wendy knew very little about Brave Cliff. Unlike Pirate Cove the name was rather vague. What on earth was so scary about the cliff that one needed to be brave to explore it? Was it really that high up? She had certainly never been afraid of heights, so that wasn’t a problem. Honestly she thought it senseless that Peter had banned her from going there. She doubted it was anything dangerous or scary, he was just being controlling as usual. Well she had made up her mind. She was going to explore Brave Cliff and she was not going to let him stop her. 

Getting through the jungle alone wasn’t hard for her. Wendy had been in Neverland so long now that she knew the paths like the back of her hand. The path to Brave Cliff was one she had encountered many times on her adventures with the lost boys. She had been on it many times but never to the end of it. This was one of the easier to traverse parts of the jungle. It started out in the thick of the jungle but as she got further along the trees got sparser. Before long the path became mostly berry bushes with a few trees in between. The sun shone down on Wendy as she walked, picking berries for her lunch as she went along. She still could not figure out why this cliff was forbidden to her by Pan. It’s not as if the path there was dangerous. She had yet to even see a jungle cat. Really this seemed like one of the tamest parts of all of Neverland. What on earth was so scary about it? 

As she got further along the path Wendy began to smell something odd. It smelled like smoke from a campfire. But it wasn’t the same kind of smoke that she smelled every night with the lost boys, this was better. It smelled sweet, like a nicer kind of wood was being burned. Soon she could see the smoke as well as smell it. It got so heavy that she could no longer see the path. She felt along the sides of her hoping to feel trees that could guide her along the way but all she felt was air. She was sure she was getting further and further from the path soon she would be lost. Suddenly she felt something hard hit her on the head. She felt herself fall to the ground and slowly watched the blackness come over her eyes. She was out cold. 

The first thing Wendy realized when she woke up was that she was lying on the dirt. She figured that she must have hit her head on a tree branch and passed out. While she was out the smoke had cleared so she could continue on her journey. She tried to move her hands to push herself up but she couldn’t. They were tied in front of her. She tried to move her feet but those were tied as well. This was not what she expected. She had to figure out what was going on. It took all of Wendy’s strength to pull herself up into a sitting position. When she finally did that she was able to look around and try to figure out where she was. The name Brave Cliff finally made sense to her. 

She was sitting on top of a high cliff that looked out at the ocean. Scattered all around the cliff were long huts covered in tree bark. She thought she remembered reading about them in a book once. She believed they were called longhouses but she wasn’t sure. In the middle of the cliff there was a giant campfire, probably the producer of the smoke that had blinded her earlier. Also scattered about the village were various tools, drums, and animal skins stretched out to dry. Oddly enough, though there were all these things lying around, there were no people. Perhaps they were all inside their homes she thought. 

Just as she had that thought she heard some ne come out of one of the houses behind her. She suspected that this was probably their chief coming to ask her what she had been doing in their territory. She would have to figure a way to talk her way out of this. It wouldn’t be too hard. If she managed to convince Pan to keep her alive how hard could this chief be? Boys were not very smart. It would be easy to trick him into letting her go. 

“So you’re finally awake I see.” She heard a female voice say from behind her. 

Before she knew it there was a tall young women standing in front of her. Her skin was tan and flawless. Her legs were long and lean, like they were meant for running. Her dark hair was in two braids, one on either side of her head, but her hair was still so long that the tip of each braid reached her hips. She was wearing a short skirt made of animal skin, a sleeveless top that exposed her stomach, and no shoes. It was a daring outfit choice in Neverland where all the bushes were covered in thorns. She went against everything Wendy had learned was beautiful in London, yet she was the most gorgeous woman she had ever seen. 

“Are you the chief?” she finally replied as she took all this in. 

“Yes, I’m Chief Tiger Lily. Surprised I’m a girl aren’t you?”

“Well yes. Not because I don’t think a girl would make a good chief, honestly I think they would do a much better job than boys. It’s just that I thought I was the only girl in Neverland, besides the fairies and mermaids of course, or at least that’s what Peter told me anyway…”

Tiger Lily practically snarled as she heard Peter’s name. “I had a feeling you were with Pan. I heard he was keeping a girl as a pet. Stupid idea of his really. He knows how dangerous we can be. He should have killed you when he had the chance. Well too late now. I’m going to have to do it for him. I think killing his little plaything would be the perfect act of revenge.”

She took a knife from the belt around her hip and crouched down to get a good angle on Wendy’s throat.

“Wait! I’m not Pan’s pet! I’m his prisoner. I hate him just as much as you do! I won’t even talk to him anymore he’s been so monstrous. Don’t punish me for his actions. I’ve suffered enough. Besides he won’t even care. He hates me after what I said to him. I won’t be surprised if he was planning to kill me himself anyway.” 

Tiger Lilly paused. “So what exactly did you do to piss him off so much?’

“I yelled at him.” Wendy said weakly.

Tiger Lilly laughed and put down the knife. “Pretty brave girl. Nice to know some ones been putting that little boy in his place.”

“So you’re not going to kill me then?” asked Wendy

“No. You know the saying. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So what’s your name anyway?”

“Wendy, Wendy Darling.”

“Nice to meet you Wendy. Give me a second and I’ll get you untied. Then we can have a chat. I want to know how you got here. We don’t really see any girls around here besides me.” 

Wendy and Tiger Lily ate lunch together that day on the cliff. Each had something to contribute. Wendy provided the berries she had picked that day and Tiger Lilly had the meat that she had hunted. They quickly became close friends, both were glad to have another girl around. They talked and they laughed while they ate. Wendy told Tiger Lily the story of her arrival in Neverland and the girl listened intently until she was done.

“I’m impressed.” Tiger Lily said as Wendy finished telling her story. “It takes most people years to figure out how to make a bargain with that demon without being tricked. You managed to do it within seconds of arriving here.”

“It was mostly luck” she replied sheepishly.

“No there’s no such thing as getting lucky when it comes to Pan. He’s too good for that. You must be a natural born demon tamer.”

“Well I don’t know about that, but I am pretty good at handling him.” 

“Just be careful. He may look like a boy on the outside, but he’s still a monster on the inside. Don’t ever forget that.”

“So what’s your history with Pan? It sounds like there’s quite a long one.”

“Well yes, there is. It’s not a happy story, though what story in Neverland is? It all began a long time ago, when he first arrived on this island. You look surprised. Yes, I’ve been in Neverland longer than Pan has. The island was a much different place back then. My tribe were the only people who lived here. Children often visited for the night, it was a land of magic they visited in their dreams, but the shadow would take them home when daylight came. Yes, the shadow was here before Pan was as well. He was the protector of this land, a force of good, though slowly over time he was corrupted, until one day Pan appeared. No one’s really sure where he came from, we just know that somehow he and the shadow are connected. When he got here it was the day before my 18th birthday, the day I was supposed to become an adult. Back before Pan came my tribe used to get older and become adults, just like people in your land do. But the day Pan got here that changed. Time froze, nobody got older anymore, and so I’m still a day away from my 18th birthday. Pan came to visit us that day, he was friendly, he wasn’t planning to hurt us he just wanted to make a treaty with us. He was going to live here just like we were, but he didn’t want to invade on our territory. We were cautious. We knew nothing about him, but we knew he was powerful and we would rather have a powerful friend than a powerful enemy. So we agreed to the treaty. We set up boundaries for each person’s land and agreed not to enter the others territory. For years we lived in peace with Pan and his group of lost boys, but then everything changed. It was the middle of the night when Pan and his boys invaded our camp. At first they did their job quietly, killing all the women in girls in the camp one by one throughout the night. But my people are alert even when they are asleep and it wasn’t long until someone discovered them and the battle cry went out. We fought hard but Pan’s boys were strong and he was even stronger. I was always the strongest and most cunning girl in the tribe, so I managed to fight them off but the other women and girls were not so lucky. They slaughtered all but me. Many of the men were killed as well. My father, as the chief, took on Pan. Though he fought well he couldn’t win, not against Pan. I had to watch Pan murder my father as he fought to protect me. After the battle was over I took my father’s place as chief of the tribe. None of the men agreed to that at first. They didn’t think a girl could lead. They all thought they would be a better chief than I was. But I proved to them that I could do it. It took a while, but I showed them that I was the smartest, the bravest, and the most determined person in the tribe. Being a woman didn’t matter, I could be a leader. Through a lot of hard work I earned their respect and loyalty. Now we work together to get revenge on Pan after all he did to us. I have the rest of the men patrol our land while I stay here and protect the camp. I heard you coming a mile away, you’re not very quiet you know, and I thought you were one of the lost boys. I figured killing you would be the start of my revenge. But then I realized you were a girl. I had heard the rumours about you, “Pan’s pet” they call you, but I didn’t think they were true until then. I figured if he cared enough about you to keep you around it would hurt him all the more when I killed you. But you were right. Killing you to get revenge on him would make me too much like him. I plan on killing him instead, as soon as I get the chance.” 

“Wow. He really is a monster.” Whispered Wendy when Tiger Lily finished her story.

“He may look like a boy, but he’s vicious. Don’t ever forget that.

“I won’t. So if he killed all the other women why has he kept you alive?”

“I don’t really know.” Tiger Lily replied lost in thought. “Some of my men think he’s attracted to me. They think he gets some sort of sick thrill out of the idea that I’m out to kill him. I don’t believe that. I don’t think he’s cable of feelings like that, even in a twisted way. He’s not human enough for them. No, I think he’s scared of me. I think deep down there’s a part of him that’s terrified of girls, he finds them dangerous and mysterious. And he knows he’s better off not crossing one when she’s angry. So he lets me live, rather than confronting me. He’ll do the same to you now too. Always remember that, it’s his greatest weakness, and only we are able to exploit it.” 

“I will. I’d like to help you with your revenge. He deserves to be punished for everything he has done.” Wendy replied, all of her old hatred for the boy returning.

“Yes, he does. And the two of us can do it together. I’ll let you know when I’ve come up with a plan.”

“It’s getting dark.” Wendy said getting up from the ground as she said it. “I still have to keep up my deal with Pan.”

“Alright.” Tiger Lily got up as well. “Don’t let him know you’ve been here though. He knows what goes on everywhere on the island except here. The treaty prevents that still. Be careful. Remember, though he looks like just a boy he’s a demon. Don’t ever let him fool you into thinking otherwise.” 

“I know. Good bye. Thank you, for everything.“ 

Wendy waved as she left and Tiger Lily responded with a firm nod. 

As she walked through the jungle Wendy thought about how foolish she had been. She was no better than all the girls who had come to Neverland before her. She fell for the pretty face while forgetting the real demon hidden within Pan. Well she was firmly over that. After hearing Tiger Lily’s story she would never be able to forget how dark and heartless that boy could be. There would be no more playing the domesticated pet for her. No more filling the role of wife and mother in Neverland. She would forgive the lost boys. She knew they were good inside, they had no choice but follow Pan’s orders. She could not forgive Pan though. She would keep up her deal to save her life, but nothing else. She would never be loyal to him like the lost boys. All her loyalties now lay with Tiger Lily where they belonged. Together they would defeat Pan and she would gain her freedom. Or at least that was what she hoped would happen. 

When she got back to the lost boy’s campsite she grabbed her dinner and sat down next to Pan without a word. They ate in silence and the tension between them was thick. He no longer seemed as angry as he was the day before, but he still refused to talk. She was of course ten times angrier and had no intention of breaking the silence either. Felix was the one to finally break the silence shrouding the entire campfire. 

“Well is it story time yet? I was actually looking forward to it today.” 

Pan silently nodded his head in approval, not looking up from his food. 

Felix was not the one Wendy was angry with, so she would do her job without putting up a fight. She was actually glad he had asked. The tension was getting to be too much even for her.   
Her conversation with Tiger Lily had brought to mind an old story she had always loved. Though Tiger Lily had warned her not to let Pan find out about their meeting, she figured there was no harm in telling that old story tonight. 

“Once upon a time there lived a young woman named Mulan. She was both beautiful and smart, but because she was a woman the people in her village only appreciated her beauty. Many of them found it hard to believe that a woman could ever be more intelligent than a man. Mulan hated this. She wanted to be seen as more than just a pretty face. Some men were even cruel to her because of it. She was never taken seriously because she was ‘just a woman’. Then one day her land was invaded by an evil army. The emperor called for one man from every family to serve in the army and protect the land. When Mulan heard this news she was sitting by her loom, weaving cloth. It was one of the traditional tasks a woman was supposed to perform, but Mulan often found it boring and tedious. She began to cry as she wove and her sobs drowned out the clack of her loom. She was an only child, she had no brothers to serve for her family, her father would have to go. Though her father was once a war hero, he was now old and injured, he would surely die in the war. Mulan loved her father more than anything in the world. She had to find a way to save him. So she decided to dress up as a man and serve in the army in her father’s place. Late at night she stole her father’s armour and snuck out the house with her horse. She rode a very long time to get to the camp, over many mountains and rivers. The further she got from home the more she missed it, but she knew this was what she had to do. When she got to the camp she fell in line with all the other new recruits. She trained long and hard to become a good soldier. Soon she was the best of her regiment. She was strong of course, but that was not what made her the best. What was more important was that she was smart, she was a brilliant tactician, a quality very important in a soldier. She was also determined and a great leader. Soon she became a general in the army and led the troops into battle against the invading army. The fought the army deep in the mountains. They fought hard and the lives of many good soldiers were lost, but Mulan stayed strong. She took on Shan Yu, the evil leader of the opposing army alone. He was strong, but she was smart and she used her intelligence to trick him. She managed to cut his head off with her sword while his back was turned. The battle ended and Mulan and her troops were the victors. The emperor invited her to the palace to award her with a medal, as she was a war hero. The day of the ceremony came and the emperor and Mulan’s loyal troops were waiting patiently to see the general receive his medal. To their shock a woman came instead. It was their general! Their general had been a woman all along and they never knew! Everyone was amazed at this discovery. A woman had been just as strong, brave, and intelligent as a man. A woman had led an army into battle and won. Though they were shocked by this discovery, it did not diminish the soldiers’ admiration of Mulan or her loyalty to her. She was still their comrade even if she was a woman. She was also still a war hero and the emperor proudly hung the medal around her neck. Throughout the land everyone talked about the girl who stole her father’s armour and became a hero. No one in that land ever questioned the power of a woman again.”   
When Wendy was done telling her story she got up out of her seat and walked out of the campsite without another word. She had done her job and that was it. She was going to go back to her house before Pan could try to trick her into forgiving him. 

When she got there she got a surprise. Lying on her bed was a baby wolf cub with a bow tied around her neck. She was the cutest thing Wendy had ever seen. She remembered telling Peter once how much she had liked wolves. They were one of her favourite animals. They were strong and noble, but also beautiful and soft. She had a feeling she knew how that cub had gotten there.   
Sure enough when she went to pet the cub she saw a tag hanging off the ribbon.

Dear Wendy,

I’m very sorry for what I said and did. Please forgive me.   
-Peter 

He had to be joking. He was an idiot if he believed that a gift and a shallow apology note would be enough to win her over. She was not going to forgive him not ever. He was a monster. The cub was still a nice gesture though. It was sweet of him to remember what her favourite animal was. Still she would not forgive him.


	9. A Touch of Destiny

Just because Wendy refused to forgive Pan did not mean that she could not keep his gift. After all, the wolf cub had done nothing to her. So she kept her and named her Lily, after her new friend. She spent her days training her new pet. She even taught her a few tricks. They went on walks together every day, but most of their time was spent inside of Wendy’s little house. At night she took Lily with her to the lost boy’s campsite to fulfil her duties. Wendy had her dinner in silence now, feeding Lily scraps as she ate. She still sat next to Pan, she had no other choice, but the atmosphere was not friendly. Wendy had refused to accept his apology and Peter didn’t know what to do about it. The tension still hung over the campsite as thickly as ever. Only Felix could break the silence by requesting a story every night. Wendy would tell her story and then leave without another word. It was difficult for her to remain so cold to the lost boys, but she needed to do this to prove a point to Pan. 

After about a week of this Wendy got a little bored with being cooped up in her house all day. She still had not received any messages from Tiger Lilly about their plan. She knew she had not forgotten her, but she had to wonder what was taking so long. She decided she should do some more exploring to kill the time. She would go to the only place she had not been too yet, Pirate Cove. Wendy loved pirates. She loved reading about them and had wanted to be one for as long as she could remember. Back in London she had always dreamed of running away to the shipyard and sneaking on a boat, but she had run away to Neverland instead. The boat would have been the smarter option, at least then she could return home. Those dreams still stayed within Wendy, and when she had first heard there were pirates in Neverland she wanted ever so much to meet them. Peter had always told her to stay away though. He said they were too dangerous for her to deal with. She thought that was ridiculous. She could hold her own against pirates and now she was going to prove it. 

She took Lily for a walk down to Pirate Cove. It didn’t take long and soon they were walking along the crescent shape beach. Wendy could see the pirate ship off in the distance. The problem was how to get on the ship. She was a decent swimmer but there was the threat of mermaids to worry about. Pirate Cove was connected to Mermaid Lagoon and the mermaids often swam in both. She could see a glint of purple in the water and knew there was one swimming nearby. If she was going to get on to that pirate ship she was going to need to come up with a plan. 

As luck would have it she did not need a plan after all, one was coming to her instead. Off in the distance she could see a small row boat with a man in it coming towards her. She waved at the ship hoping it would spot her. Soon the boat had landed on the beach and a small scruffy man with a red knit cap was climbing out of it. 

“Are you Wendy Darling?” asked the man

“Yes, and who are you?” she asked, shocked that a complete stranger knew her name. 

“I’m Mr.Smee first mate to Captain Hook. I’ve come to deliver an invitation from the Captain to come aboard our ship, the Jolly Roger.” 

“Well I’d be happy to accept that invitation.”

“Well than climb aboard my ship Miss.”

“Stay here and be a good girl. I’ll be back soon.” She said to Lily as she got into the boat.

Mr.Smee began rowing them out to sea. Wendy could see the multi coloured flashes of mermaid tails beneath the water as they travelled. They were beautiful, but she knew they were monsters. They were like Pan in that way, no wonder he liked to visit them often. 

“Aren’t you worried that the mermaids will tip the boat?” she asked

“No they wouldn’t dare attacking us. They know I have this on board.”

He pointed to a fishing net piled on the bottom of the boat. It seemed like such an easy way to scare off the mermaids, but it did make sense. 

The ship got larger and larger as they got closer to it. It was a rather majestic ship. The exact sort of thing one would expect a pirate to live on. Soon the entire boat was being pulled up by ropes onto the main deck of the ship. 

“Ah, Miss Darling, Welcome aboard my ship” said a man when she got on deck.

Obviously he was the captain. He was much older than Wendy, probably about 30 years old. He was also quite handsome. He had the sort of rugged good looks one would expect from a pirate. True to his name he also had a hook in place of his left hand. It shone in the bright sunlight, reminding Wendy of Peter’s warnings. Still Wendy was not afraid, she was determined to prove that she was just as fearsome as any pirate. She was tired of him seeing her as some poor weak thing. 

 

“Thank you so much for the invitation.” She confidently replied.

“You’re very welcome darling. As you may have guessed I’m the Captain of this vessel. Captain Killian Jones. More famously known as Captain Hook.” He smiled and held up his Hook as an illustration. 

“It’s very nice to meet you Captain.” She curtsied. She had been taught to respect her elders, even if they were pirates. 

Hook nodded his head in return. “If you don’t mind please allow me to escort you to my quarters. I thought we would have a nice lunch while I discuss a few important matters with you.” 

The captain held out his arm to her and Wendy laid her arm on top of it. He was a real gentlemen, not like Peter. Though Peter had tried to do the same thing many times he never had the same grace and charm the Captain had. But of course he didn’t, he was just a boy, a barbaric one at that. Hook was a man, one who was clearly raised properly. The difference between them was obvious even in this small gesture. 

The Captain’s quarters were small but cosy. He escorted her to the dining room where there was a large wooden table with a velvet upholstered chair at each end. Laid out on the table was the best food Wendy had seen in a long time. It was mostly seafood, but it was incredibly well cooked. There was a bright red lobster and vivid pink salmon. There were clams and mussels covered in butter. There was even caviar! A special treat Wendy had been only allowed to taste at the fancy Christmas party her father’s bank used to hold every year. There was even proper china and polished silver to eat with. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen that. 

“It’s wonderful isn’t it?” Hook said sensing her amazement. “The seas of Neverland are the most fruitful I’ve ever been on. I also happen to have an excellent chef aboard my ship.” 

“Thank you so much for all of this. It’s very generous”

“Not a problem darling. It’s rare for me to have a member of the fairer sex aboard my ship anymore, but I did my best to be hospitable to a proper young lady.” He said as he pulled out her chair for her. 

“Well it’s still very kind of you. I do not get treated like a proper young lady very often anymore.”

He chuckled. “No, I imagine not. Would you like any wine?” he gestured to a glass decanter on the table. 

 

“Yes please.”   
He carefully poured her a glass as he spoke. “I hope you like it. It’s a very rare vintage, one of my personal favourites. I’ve been saving it for a worthy guest.”

Wendy nodded in response, hoping she looked like she knew what he was talking about. She knew nothing about wine. She’d only been allowed to have a few sips of wine before, at the bank Christmas party. She took a sip from her glass. It was quite strong, but also very sweet. She liked it, she could get used to this sort of adult activity.   
Hook had poured himself a glass as well and sat down at the opposite side of the table. 

“I’ll let you eat a bit first before we have our discussion.” He said. “Go ahead and chose what you like, ladies first of course.”

She filled her plate with all of her favourites trying not to put too much on her plate. Even though she was dying to stuff her face she made sure to take proper ladylike bites. She only looked up from her food when she heard the Captain chuckle. 

“You don’t have to eat like a bird just because you’re in my company. I know how badly those boys feed you. Dig in.”

Wendy was not sure if this was a trick or not. Perhaps he was testing her to see how much like the lost boys she was. She took a few more sips of her wine, finishing off the glass as she considered it.   
She decided that it was a test, and she continued to eat properly and not like an animal. 

He got up and laughed again while he poured her another glass of wine. 

“You really are a proper lady aren’t you? Such a rare breed in these parts, and so precious.” He handed her the glass and his hand briefly brushed hers. 

“I’m rather proud of my manners.” She said taking another sip of wine. “I like to try to keep things civil, even out here.”

“It’s all very admirable actually.” He said taking a sip from his own glass of wine. “It’s rather a lovely thought. You, a dainty young thing, out in the jungle in your pretty blue dress, trying to teach the rowdy lost boys some manners. I hear they call you mother?”

Wendy blushed a little from the compliment and the wine. “Yes, they do. It’s rather sweet. I’ve actually made quite a bit of progress with them. They’re very nice boys, they just needed a woman around to teach them and provide a good example. 

“And what a lovely example you must be for them. Maybe I’ll have you teach some of my men their manners as well. Not all of them are as gentlemanly as I am. We really do need a good woman’s touch around this ship.” He finished his third glass of wine. 

“Well I’d be glad to stop by the ship often, if you would like me too.” She finished her own glass. “I’d rather like it actually. Pan and I are not on the best terms at the moment.”

Hook came over and poured her another glass. This time purposely letting his hand linger on hers as he handed it back. 

“Actually that brings me to the matter I wanted to discuss with you.”

“Oh yes. What was it exactly?”

“I invited you here because I wanted to know the nature of your relationship with the boy. With Pan, of course. I’ve heard a lot about you and I wanted to know the truth. It really is quite puzzling. You’re the first girl he hasn’t thrown to the mermaids.” 

“So that’s what you wanted.” She said, just a little disappointed. “You’re not the first to be curious about that and I’m sure you won’t be the last.”

“Yes, I did hear that you spoke to Tiger Lily the other day.”

This piece of information, that he knew Tiger Lily well, made her trust him even more than she already did. 

“Well you see, he did try to trick me into falling prey to the mermaids at first, but I was too smart for him. I made a deal with him. He allows me to live so long as I come and tell him and the lost boys a story every night. It’s a business relationship really, nothing more.” She tried to act as if this was all very casual. Making deals with a demonic boy to save her life. Though inwardly she knew he’d be impressed by it and she took a sip of wine to hide the smile on her face. 

“Making a deal with Pan on your first day in Neverland? Very impressive darling. So it’s nothing but a business relationship then? I heard that he was keeping you as a bit of a pet. That he built you a little house in the jungle, and he gives you everything you want. I even heard that he took you flying one day.”

“I don’t know who’s been giving you your information, but they’re wrong.” She said rather too harshly, the wine was starting to get to her head a bit. “I am not his pet. He tried to win me over by building me a house and taking me flying but I wouldn’t fall for that. He’s a monster. He has me prisoner here. But I refuse to give up all my independence to him. I’ll do whatever I want and go wherever I want and there’s nothing he can do about it. No matter how much he wants to control me he cannot.” 

“You certainly are feisty enough to handle Pan.” He chuckled and finished off another glass of wine. “But I think you’re wrong about his motivation for all this. He’s not exactly trying to control you, that is just a side effect, he’s a bit clueless. He may be a monster, but you’re forgetting that he’s also a boy, a young man really.”

“What do you mean exactly?” she asked, finishing off her own glass, her third now. 

“Well…” he said, getting up to fill her glass again. “As a man, spending so much time with such a beautiful woman as you darling, he’s bound to feel an attraction to you.” 

He refilled her glass again, but this time he didn’t hand it back to her. Instead he took her hand in his own and kissed it. His warm lips and prickly moustache brushing against her hand gave her a warm fluttery feeling, which when mixed with the warm giddiness caused by all the wine confused her. It took her a few seconds to fully comprehend what he was saying. When it did finally sink in she could hardly believe it. 

“I really don’t think that’s the case.” She said taking her hand away. “He doesn’t feel things like that.”

“Oh no, he doesn’t normally. He’s killed all the normal girls he’s ever met without a second thought. You are something special. There was a bit of destiny in your coming to this Island. You’re exactly the kind of girl that could attract him.” He said grabbing her hand and pulling her out of her seat. “You’re brave enough to stand up to him, and he finds that alluring.” He pulled her in closer to him. “And you have so many other lovely features that he just cannot resist. You have such soft skin and shiny golden hair.” He brushed his rough hand across her face and pushed her hair behind her ears. “Such pretty eyes and enticing lips…but he doesn’t know how to woo you properly.”

His face now hovered next to hers. Their lips almost touched. Normally Wendy would be too shy to be in this kind of situation. She had only been kissed once before, and that hardly counted since Pan had forced her to, and it only lasted a few seconds. She had never had a serious kiss, and she had certainly never flirted with such a mature and experienced man before. But, all the wine had made her bold and she was pretty sure she could hold her own in this game. She shifted away from him and bit her lip. 

“You really think that he’s in love with me?” she whispered, trying her best to sound flirtatious. “And what, may I ask, makes you an expert on the topic of love?” 

Pain flashed through Hook’s eyes and he backed further away from Wendy.

“I was in love once. I know how it feels, that’s why I recognize it so well in others. But then I lost her.” The pain in his eyes then changed to anger.” To a demon far worse than Pan, the same crocodile that took my hand. And I vowed to get my revenge.” 

Wendy had not gotten the response she had wanted, but she was not going to give up. She felt terrible for Hook’s loss, but she was determined to play a part in this new adult world she had entered.

“Oh you poor man.” She whispered sympathetically. “It must be so terrible to lose someone you love so much. I can help you if you like” she got closer and whispered in his ear. “I can comfort you, or help you with your revenge, whatever you like.” 

“And you will.” He said backing away again.“ By believing what I’m telling you about Pan.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Pan doesn’t feel the same way you do, he’s just a boy.” 

“He’s more of a man than you think darling.”

“Well maybe you don’t know as much as you think. Besides I want a real man, a gentleman, and Peter will never be that.”

Hook chuckled at her. “Such a cute young thing, so ready to enter the adult world, shame your stuck here really, stuck a child forever.” He took a flask from his pocket and took a sip

“I thought I was an adult. You said I was a woman after all.”

“Right you are darling” he laughed,” and I think you’re ready to try a bit of an adult drink then” he held out his flask to her.

Wendy was determined to prove her point. She took his flask and took a large gulp of it. It was much stronger than wine. She tried not to make a face as she handed the flask back to Hook. 

“Impressive. No wonder Pan likes you so much. Well you best be getting back to shore darling. It’s getting dark and you better not break your bargain with him.”

“Fine” she said reluctantly. 

He lead her back on to the deck and the small boat waiting to take her back to land.

“Remember what I told you. I know when a man is trying to woo a woman. And that’s exactly what Pan is doing with you.”

“Well I think you’re wrong.” She replied, thoroughly annoyed with him. “Well goodbye Captain. I suppose you want me to keep our little meeting a secret from Pan.”

Hook laughed, annoying her more. “You honestly think he doesn’t already know? He knows everything that happens on this island. You wouldn’t have even made it on this ship if he wasn’t letting you. His giving you the freedom you desire darling. As I said, he’s trying to woo you.”

Wendy didn’t know what to say about this new revelation. She just got into the boat and began heading back towards land. 

She hardly thought it possible that Peter could have some sort of crush on her as Hook said. Emotions like that were too human for him. At least, that’s what Tiger Lily had told her. At the same time it was difficult to explain Peter’s actions any other way. Why was he allowing her all this freedom? The only answer she could think of was because she had asked for it, and he wanted to make her happy. It seemed an odd thought, the great Peter Pan going out of his way to please her, but what other explanation could there be? She was torn. Who was correct? Tiger Lily or Hook? Was Peter Pan more a monster or a boy, or a man really? She just didn’t know. He was a riddle she could not solve, and apparently no one else could either. 

“There you go Miss, back ashore” Mr. Smee said as he helped Wendy out of the boat. 

“Thank you very much. Tell the Captain I had a lovely time and eagerly await another invitation.”

“I will Miss. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

Lily was still patiently waiting for her on the beach. She wagged her tail as she walked over to her. 

“Hello Lily. Did you miss me?” She pet the wolf cub’s head. “Come on lets head to dinner.”

Wendy felt incredibly unsteady on her feet. She couldn’t tell if it was because she had just spent so much time on a ship or if it was all the alcohol she had consumed. Either way she did not have the easiest time getting to the campsite. She needed to use the trunks of trees to brace herself. By the time she finally got there she realized it probably wasn’t sea legs anymore, she was drunk. 

“Well someone seems to have had a lot of fun today” Peter said as she walked unsteadily into the clearing. 

It was the first thing he had said to her in a week. She wasn’t angry anymore though, she decided she should be civil. 

“Well I guess I did.” She laughed. 

“Well that’s good.” 

Wendy went to sit down in her usual spot next to Peter. She didn’t bother to grab any food she was still much too full from her lunch with Hook. There was very little food left anyway, as she had gotten there so late. Instead she just sat and waited for the boys to be ready, then she told the story she had come up with for that day. 

“There once was a sailor named Davy Jones who dreamed of being the best sailor to ever sail the seven seas. He worked very hard on his ship, and was eventually made captain of a ship of his very own. Yet, this still wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to be the best, and in order to be the best he had to have the fastest ship, so that he could get his cargo to its destination before anyone else could. Jones once heard a legend of an Island in the Caribbean that only the best sailor could find. The legend said that the goddess of the sea, Calypso, lived on that island and would be willing to grant the wish of any sailor who found her, but for a price. Jones went in search of Calypso’s island, hoping to ask her for the fastest ship in the world. It took him many years, but eventually he found the island described in the legend. ‘I summon you Calypso!’ he yelled when he arrived. A strange, yet beautiful woman walked out of the sea and on to the beach. She had deep blue skin and hair like seaweed. She was clothed in nothing but sea shells and sea moss. ‘I am the goddess Calypso. Tell me what you desire.’ She said to him. He told her his wish, to be the best captain to ever sail the seven seas. She agreed to grant it, but at a price. She would give him the Flying Dutchman, the fastest ship there ever was, and she would make him immortal, so that he would remain the best sailor for all time. In exchange, he would only be able to set foot on land for one day every ten years. Jones agreed to this deal without a second thought. He wanted to be great and that’s all that mattered. It was only when he was sailing away from the island that he realized what a terrible thing he had done. He had forgotten the only thing that was more important to him than getting his new ship, the woman he was in love with. He had promised her that they would get married after he got his ship, but now he had ruined everything. He sailed back to his home to tell her what he had done and spend his one day on land with her. She was devastated at the news, but decided to make the best of it. They got married and spent one romantic day on land. Then Jones went out to sea for 10 years. During those 10 years he earned his reputation as the best Captain in the world. He got his cargo to its destination faster than anyone else, and he was paid richly for doing so. Yet, all this meant nothing to him, because he could not see the women he loved. He thought about his wife often, she was the only thing that got him through the long years at sea. Finally the 10th anniversary of his deal with Calypso came and he was able to go back home and see her again. But when he got there he was devastated. He was told that she had caught a mysterious disease and died a long time ago. In his desire to be the best he had lost sight of the thing he loved most, and now she was gone forever. He no longer had anything to live for, nothing to get him through those 10 long years at sea. Yet, he was immortal and could never join her in the afterlife. He tried to stay on land in hopes that it would kill him, but he did not die on the second day. He only felt an insufferable burning in his legs that would not go away until he went back on his ship. So he had no choice but to continue to sail the seas. He was no longer an honest merchant sailor, he turned against all that and became a pirate. He sailed the world plundering and killing every merchant ship he encountered. He hoped this revenge would give him something to live for, but it could not heal the hole in his heart. Yet he could find no other solution. To this day he still continues to be the deadliest pirate in the ocean. But every ten years he goes back home and visits the grave of his true love, the one he lost in his quest for power, the one that no act of revenge can ever bring back to him.” 

As usual the lost boys were all asleep when she finished her story. Only Peter was still awake. Though she was making an attempt to be civil to him, she still fully intended to walk home by herself. She went to get up from her seat, but she was still a little unsteady from the alcohol. She tripped and fell , but before she hit the ground Peter grabbed her to steady her. 

“Wendy, just let me walk you home, for once you need the help.” He said as she tried to get up by herself again. 

“Fine” she replied reluctantly. “But only this one time.” 

“Alright.”

She looped her arm around his and he guided her back home. It was just like before they fought. He may not have been as gentlemanly and sophisticated as Hook, but there was something comfortable in the way he lead her that she had kind of missed. Before she knew it they were back at her cottage. 

“Thank you for the help.” She said as she let go of his arm and went to open her door.

“Wait.” He grabbed her hand back to stop her. “I have something I want to give you.”

He placed a small bottle in her hand.\

“This is for you. It’s your very own bottle of pixie dust. So you can fly whenever you want, without my help. You were right. I shouldn’t tell you what to do, you don’t belong to me. You’re your own person. I want you to be able to do whatever you want here, without anyone telling you what to do. Isn’t that what I promised you when you first got here? So this is my way of keeping that promise. I’m sorry.”   
Wendy was touched. Peter Pan was really, sincerely apologizing to her. He was truly sorry for treating her like his pet. And he was letting her have pixie dust. Peter was the only one on the island allowed to have any, not even Felix had his own bottle. He was actually going to let her fly by herself and do whatever he wanted. All because he felt sorry for what he said to her. Maybe Hook was right after all. 

“Thank you.” She finally said. “I forgive you. And thank you for giving me time to be independent. That’s what I really wanted. And this pixie dust means so much to me. Thank you so much.” 

Peter smiled at her. “Can I come visit you tomorrow morning then?”

Wendy smiled back. “Fine, but not too early. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” He said as he finally let go of her hand and walked away.

Though Wendy still wasn’t sure if she believed Tiger lily or Hook, she was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, there was part of Peter buried deep down inside of him that did feel human emotions. She wasn’t sure if she believed he was in love with her, but she did believe that he wanted more than anything to be her friend. And deep down, she knew there was a little part of herself that would be glad to be his friend as well.


	10. The Wilis

Wendy woke up late the next morning feeling awful. There was a pounding in her head and the sun was much too bright, even with her eyes closed. She was pretty sure all the alcohol Hook had given her had caused this. She no longer had any desire to visit that pirate ever again. Not if she was going to feel like this the next day. It took more effort than it should have for her to open her eyes and sit up. When she finally did she was startled by the sight of Peter sitting in the chair on the other side of the room.

“Good morning Wendy bird. I know you said not to come visit before you woke up, but I had a feeling you might need a little help this morning. There’s a cup of tea on the table next to your bed. It’s a recipe I overheard Smee talking about before. It’s supposed to help.” 

It took Wendy a few seconds to fully process everything he said. It felt like her head was full of molasses. She looked over at the table and sure enough there was a steaming hot tea cup sitting on it. She picked it up and stared into it. It was a murky green colour. She took a sip and almost spit it out. It was the worst cup of tea she had ever tasted.

“It’s not the best tasting, but if you drink it all it will help.” He said when he saw the face she made “Isn’t that funny. I’m giving medicine to mother when it’s usually the other way around.”

It wasn’t easy, but she did what he said and drank the whole thing down. Miraculously as soon as she did so she felt a million times better. She no longer had a headache and she was thinking much quicker. 

“Thank you for that.” She finally said. 

“You’re welcome. Now come on let’s go have an adventure! Er whenever you’re ready of course…”

Wendy smiled at him. Maybe he was learning his lesson after all.

When Wendy was ready the two of them, and Lily, who never left her mistress’s side, went and walked along the water falls in the mountains. They were beautiful, crystal clear and sparkling in the sunlight. Each one was surrounded by multi-coloured wild flowers. Neverland really could be breath-taking sometimes. It may have been the most pleasant walk Wendy had ever had. Peter talked to her like an actual person, not once did he try to tell her what to do. He seemed like he wanted to get to know her and was interested in what she had to say. They talked for a long time, about all sorts of things, Peter told funny stories about the lost boys, and Wendy talked about her brothers. Occasionally, Peter would stop for a second to pick a flower for Wendy. He always managed to find the most beautiful flowers on the hill side. By the time night had fallen Wendy had woven a crown out of the flowers and had had a lovely time. Maybe this friendship thing really could work out.   
As the days went by Wendy got even closer to Peter. They often went waking around Neverland together, or stayed in Wendy’s house and talked all day. She often found herself looking forward to his visits. He was fun to talk to, he made her laugh, and he really did seem to be trying to be nicer to her. 

At the same time, she also felt incredibly guilty about her new found friendship with Peter. She had trained Lily to take messages to Tiger Lily and the two girls sent them back and forth every day. She still remembered the story Tiger Lily had told her and her promise to help her friend get revenge. Yet, it was getting harder and harder to keep that promise. She wanted to help Tiger Lily, but it was hard to reconcile the monstrous Pan in her story with Peter, the boy who made her laugh and brought her flowers. When the time came would she really be able to kill him after all that had happened?  
There was also the problem of the lost boys. They were loyal to Peter and would do anything to protect him. She could never hurt them. They loved her, they called her mother. They came to visit her often, just as they always had. Now that she and Peter were no longer fighting, Felix resumed his visits to Wendy’s house for tea and a chat. She could never forget that he had told her she reminded him of his sister. Tootles and Slightly loved Lily and often came over to play with her. They always had presents for “mother” as well. Even Rufio, who tried so hard to look tough, would sometimes offer to help Wendy make dinner. They were her family now, she could never hurt them, but she had promised Tiger Lily. 

On one occasion Wendy had offered to help the boys tidy up their campsite. It really was a mess that could use of women’s touch. Wendy was happy to lend a hand. She had spent all day cleaning up ashes and food scraps with the boys help. She was even considering making them some blankets and pillows to make the place homier. She thought she might make some other things as well, maybe some decorations, some sort of curtains to hang from the trees, or some hammocks. She could probably easily make those out of some rope. She was suddenly interrupted in her thoughts by the sound of an unfamiliar voice. That in itself was not so unusual, a few new lost boys had arrived on the island since she had got there, and she often heard them talking to Peter before she actually saw them. What made this voice unusual was that it was female. 

“Is that all you wanted.” the unfamiliar voice said from somewhere in the nearby jungle. 

“Yes, that’s all.” That was definitely Peter, Wendy would know his voice anywhere. 

“Alright, I’ll be off then.” the female voice said. 

“No, stay awhile. Some of the boys will want to see you. I’m sure Felix has missed you at least. And I want you to meet her…”

“ Alright, but not for very long.”

Peter came into Wendy’s view first. Walking behind him was the possessor of the unfamiliar voice, a blonde woman whom Wendy had never known existed. She was quite a bit older than Wendy, and very pretty. She wore the same colour green as Peter and seemed to know him very well since she was allowed to be so close to him.

“Who is she?” she whispered to Tootles, who was standing next to her. “I thought I was the only girl here.”

“Oh that’s not a girl!” he replied a bit too loudly, “That’s Tinkerbell, she’s a fairy.” 

“Well she doesn’t look like any of the fairies Peter showed me. They were all tiny, and where are her wings?”

‘She had wings once,” Felix said, overhearing. “But they were cut off as punishment. She pissed off the Fairy Queen somehow.”

“How does she know Peter?” Wendy asked him.

“She’s known him longer than I have, longer than anyone has. She used to be one of us, even better than us really. Peter trusted her more than anyone. He told her things he’s never even told me. Tink wasn’t just one of his followers, he treated her as his equal.”

“Well what happened? Why is this the first time I’ve seen her?”

“They had a fight a long time ago. Tink went deep into the jungle and lived there on her own. Peter tried to get her to come join the group again, but she refused, and he couldn’t make her do it.”

“What was the fight about?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged his shoulders “Peter would never tell me.”

Before Wendy could ask him anymore questions he walked over to Tinkerbell. He looked a little unsure of himself, but the woman grabbed him and hugged him the moment she saw him.   
Wendy wondered what made Tinkerbell so special. It took her ages to get Peter to stop bossing her around. And just to do that she had to yell at him and refuse to speak to him for a week…  
And Peter treating anyone one like an equal. That was completely unheard of. Maybe Hook was wrong, maybe this Tinkerbell was the one he was the one he was really in love with. It would certainly explain his actions. Maybe that’s what the fight was about too. That must have been it. 

While Wendy was trying to solve that mystery Tinkerbell was walking over towards her.

“And you must be Wendy.” She said, interrupting Wendy’s thoughts. “I’m Tinkerbell. I’m very glad to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Oh, You have?” she blushed feeling oddly self-conscious. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m afraid I haven’t heard nearly as much about you.” 

“Of course you haven’t.” She rolled her eyes. 

“I’m glad to see you two have met.” Said Peter, butting into their conversation. “ Tink is going to be our guest for dinner tonight Wendy. So you had better start cooking.” 

Tink shot him a dirty look. “I never said I was staying for dinner Peter.” 

“Well I guess you are now.” He said with a shrug and a smirk. “I’m sure you’re just dying to hear one of Wendy’s stories. And Wendy doesn’t mind cooking for my guest. Do you Wendy?”

“Um… Sure.” Wendy stammered feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

It was bad enough that she had no idea what was going on between them, now he had to use her as some sort of weapon against Tink as well.  
Wendy resentfully went and cooked dinner as Peter had asked. She hated being ordered around, but she supposed old habits die slowly, especially when one is fighting with an old lover, or whatever exactly Tink was. She let him get away with it just this once, if only because she had always been taught to be polite in front of guests. Also, if Tink stayed for dinner she might have a chance of finding out what exactly happened between her and Peter. Her curiosity was getting the better of her and she hated being out of the loop. She hated even more that Tink had apparently heard all about her when she didn’t even know the woman existed until now. Of course, keeping secrets from her was another of Peter’s bad habits, and so was talking about her to others behind her back. Wendy had a feeling she was the “her” he had been talking about in the woods. And for some reason Peter was determined to have Tink meet her, and hear one of her stories. She had no idea what this was all about or what Peter’s plan was, but it was starting to make her really uncomfortable and a little paranoid. 

By the time she had finished cooking dinner, night had fallen and the lost boys were building the campfire. As soon as they saw that the food was done the boys swarmed at her, grabbing piles of food and loading their plates. Peter strode up and parted the crowd, just like the stories Wendy had read about Moses. He grabbed his food and headed to his usual spot by the fire with the rest of the lost boys following his lead. Wendy and Tink both waited until things had calmed down before getting some food without saying a word to each other. 

Wendy headed to her usual spot next to Peter, but she was surprised to see Tinkerbell heading towards the exact same seat. They both got there at the same time and stood next to each other awkwardly. 

“This has always been where I sit.” Tink said looking meaningfully a Peter.

“Well that’s fine.” Said Wendy, trying to be polite. “I can sit next to Tootles for today.”

“No, Tink, I gave this seat to Wendy.” Said Peter sternly. “You gave up your place here I long time ago. Please sit down Wendy.”

Wendy sat down anxiously. She hated being used as a pawn in his game. At least this time he said please. If she was perfectly honest with herself, she was sort of glad he said it, it was her spot now and it had been for quite a while. 

“Well that’s aright I guess.” Tink said coldly, “I’ll sit across from Peter. That is where I belong. I forgot I was considered an outsider now.” 

Tink sat down next to Tootles and practically shot daggers out of her eyes at Peter and Wendy. It did not make it easy for Wendy to eat when she could feel the girl’s eyes on her nonstop.  
Peter didn’t seem to notice it at all. He acted as he had all week, complementing her on her cooking, making pleasant conversation, even feeding scraps to Lily for her. Wendy tried to act as relaxed as him, but she couldn’t get over the uneasy feeling she had. She felt like Tink was jealous of her, and that Peter was trying to show her off and make it worse. Whatever was going on between the two of them, she was definitely being pushed in the middle of it. 

“Wendy bird, why don’t you tell one of your stories now? I know Tink has been dying to hear one.” Peter said eventually. 

“Um, aright.” She replied, sure that Tink had no real interest in her childish stories. “I’m sure I can come up with something she would enjoy” 

Really she had no idea what story to tell. Whatever she chose she knew it would probably be as scrutinized by Tink was as she had been since the woman arrived. She seemed to think that Wendy had replaced her in Peter’s eyes, and that made her angry and jealous. That thought was what gave Wendy the idea for her story. 

“A long time ago, in a cute little town on the banks of the Rhine River, there lived a yang maiden named Giselle. Giselle was the most beautiful and graceful girl in the village, but she was a very sickly. She was born with a weak heart, and because of this her mother was very protective of her. She rarely let Giselle go out of the house or socialise with other young ladies and men. Only once a day was Giselle allowed outside without her mother, to take a leisurely stroll along the banks of the river. One day, Giselle was on her walk when she met a young peasant boy. He was very handsome, and she instantly fell in love with him. He looked at her and immediately felt the same. He introduced himself to her as Loys, the son of a young farmer, and said that he wanted nothing more than to love her for the rest of his life. The two of them agreed to meet on Giselle’s daily walk in secret every day because Giselle knew her mother would never allow her to see him. Hilarion, the town’s best hunter, had been obsessed with Giselle for a long time. He would spy on her during her walks to admire her beauty. He felt that she belonged to him, and when he saw her with Loys he became extremely jealous. He was determined to keep the two of them apart so he could make Giselle his. Giselle and Loys continued to meet in secret every day and they fell more and more in love. Giselle had even started to hope that they would get married soon. Then one day, the royal hunting party passed through the village, containing the Princess Bathilde, the fiancée of the Prince of the land. A big celebration was held to welcome her, with much feasting and dancing. Even Giselle was allowed to attend the celebration and dance for the Princess. But Hilarion interrupted the festivities to reveal something important he had discovered. He had been spying on Loys, and discovered that he was in fact the Prince in disguise. He told Giselle that Loys had been lying to her all along. He was really engaged to Princess Bathilde. Loys came out of hiding and tried to explain himself to Giselle. He said that it was Giselle he really loved, and his engagement to Bathilde was arranged by his parents. But it was too late. The news of Loys’s lies and betrayal, and the crushing of her dreams for a life with him was too much for Giselle’s weak heart to handle, and she fell over dead from grief. Giselle’s mother was poor and was only able to give her a small funeral and a burial in the woods. The night after her burial Hilarion went to visit her grave and mourn her death. He had never intended for this to happen, he just wanted to make Giselle marry him, but now it was too late. As he was weeping for her he suddenly felt a cool breeze against his back. He looked up and saw a group of women, all in white, walking through the woods towards him. He knew what they were, he had heard the old legends. They were the wilis, the ghost of young women who died of broken hearts. They were jealous and vengeful spirits who killed any men they encountered. They had come to recruit Giselle among them. Hilarion was terrified and ran from the ghosts, but he could not see in the moonless night, so he fell into a lake and drowned. Once they scared off Hilarion the wilis returned to Gisele’s grave to raise her spirit, but Loys had also come to visit Giselle’s grave. The wilis decided to punish Loys as well, by forcing him to dance until he died. But Giselle rose from her grave and stopped the wilis. She still loved Loys even after all that had happened, and she refused to join the vengeful wilis. The wilis left in anger, they could no longer hurt Loys as he was under Giselle’s protection. Loys apologized to Giselle for his betrayal, and told her he had always and would forever love her. Giselle forgave Loys and said that she would always love him too. As morning came Giselle retreated to her grave. Unlike the jealous and vengeful wilis, Giselle was able to forgive and continue to love even after death and she was able to rest in peace for all of time.”

When the story was over the lost boys were sleepy as usual. Wendy, Peter, Felix, and Tinkerbell were the only ones still fully awake. Tinkerbell still stared at Wendy intensely. What she was thinking Wendy could only guess, but she had been in this awkward situation for far too long and she was desperate to get out of it. 

“Well I guess I’ll be heading back home now.” She said as she stood up. “Goodnight everyone. It was very nice to meet you Tinkerbell, I hope you enjoyed the food and the story.” 

“I’ll take you home. If you don’t mind, I mean.” Peter stood up and offered his arm out to her. 

“Oh, that’s fine.” she responded, wondering what Tink thought of this. 

They walked back to her cottage in silence with Lily trailing behind them. They were both lost in their thoughts. Wendy was still trying to figure out what exactly was going on with Tinkerbell. She had no time to try to guess what was on Peter’s mind. Before she knew it they were already back at her cottage, and she was still completely confused. 

“Well Goodnight Wendy bird.” Peter said, rousing Wendy from her thoughts. 

“Oh, Goodnight Peter.” She waved a little as he walked away before shutting her door. 

Even though she was not the least bit tired she still went on with her daily night time routine. She changed into her nightdress, washed her face, and brushed out her curls. Yet sleep was still the farthest thing from her mind. Everything that day had been so odd. To discover that there was yet another girl on the island whose existence had been kept a secret from her. Then to find out Tinkerbell had had some sort of special relationship with Peter, that ended in a fight over something, nobody knew exactly over what, but whatever it was Tink had clearly not gotten over it. And somehow she was mixed up in all of this, though she had no idea how or why. All she knew was that Tink seemed to be extremely jealous of her and Peter seemed to be making an extra effort to make her mad by showing Wendy off. She couldn’t make heads of tails of any of this, and it was starting to make her rather angry. Why did everyone on this island insist on keeping secrets from her? And they all seemed determined to drag her into all their fights with almost no explanation. Peter was especially guilty of all of this. It was enough drive anyone mad!

Her thoughts were once again interrupted, this time by a knock on her door.

“If it’s Peter he had better be coming with an explanation of all this.” She said as she got up and opened the door. 

It wasn’t Peter. It was Tinkerbell, not at all who she had expected. 

“Hello, May I come in?” Tink asked.

“Um, yes. Go right ahead.” Wendy said awkwardly. “Please sit down. Would you like some tea?” 

“Um, no thank you.” Said Tink sitting down on the living room chair. “I’m going to get right to it. I’ve come here to tell you something important.”

“Oh…” Wendy sat down at the end of the bed, next to Lily who was already asleep. “What is it?”

“Well it’s a bit of a long story. It all started a long time ago. Peter was going to another world, one called the Enchanted Forrest. He took me with him as I had been there before, but all the lost boys were left behind. They weren’t even told where we were going. Peter was extremely secretive about the whole thing. He wouldn’t even explain to me why we were going, just that we were looking for a young blind woman, a seer. When we finally found her she had a prophecy. She told Peter of two exceptional people who would come to his island. There would be a boy, the Truest Believer, and a girl, the Grandest Imaginer. She said they had the power to save him, or to stop him.” 

“Save him or stop him from what?” Wendy interrupted. 

“I don’t know. She never said and he never told me. The seer said that the Truest Believer would trust him unconditionally from the moment they met. He would do what Peter said and think that he was the greatest magical being that ever lived. The Grandest Imaginer would be the opposite. While the Truest Believer would be the one who would have faith in all the stories, the Grandest Imaginer was the one who would create them all. She said that from the moment Peter met the Grandest Imaginer he would be in love with her. He would do anything to please her and worship her like a goddess. While he would be able to easily control the Truest Believer, he would never have control of the Grandest Imaginer no matter how hard he tried. The Truest Believer and the Grandest Imaginer, their hearts would decide Peter’s fate, those were the seer’s last words before she disappeared. After hearing the prophecy Peter was furious. The idea of being in love, of letting anyone have so much power over him, sickened him. He took us back to Neverland immediately. The minute he got back to camp he ordered the lost boys to kill all the women and girls on the island except me. Then he started throwing all the girls the shadow brought to the island to the mermaids. I hated all of this, it was the most monstrous thing he’d ever done. I still can’t get over all the young girls who lost their lives. I tried to get him to stop, but he told me if I kept defying him he would kill me like the rest of the girls. Well I’ve known Peter for longer than anyone else, and we have done a lot for each other, but I told him from the beginning that the minute he threatened me our partnership was over. So after that fight I packed up and made my own home, away from him deep in the jungle. He didn’t stop me. He respected me and knew that he had broken his promise, but he never listened to me about how wrong his actions were either.” 

“So that’s what you two fought over,” Wendy interrupted again. “But what does all of this mean to me?”

“Don’t you see Wendy? You are the Grandest Imaginer. Peter’s in love with you. He has been since the moment he met you. That’s why he didn’t kill you like all the others. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. That’s why he does all these things for you. He didn’t want you to know about all this though, he thinks if he keeps it a secret he can prevent the prophecy, he can keep you from stopping his plans. That’s his goal. He invited me here to try to prove that the prophecy was wrong, that even though he is in love with you, you still didn’t have the power to stop him. But he’s wrong about all of this. The seer didn’t say which one would stop him and who would save him, she said you were able to do either. He’s just afraid of how much control you have over him, that’s why he thinks you’ll be the one who can stop him, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Wendy, you can help him, you can save him and make him a better person. He’s in love with you!”

“But what could I do to help him?” Wendy asked in disbelief. 

“Well as jaded as I am. I still believe in the power of true love. True love can help even the most monstrous of people become good, if they only give it the chance to. Love can save lives, you just have to be brave enough to let it. Just tell him you love him Wendy, it will save him from his own darkness.”

“Well what if I don’t love him in return? He’s a monster! He kills people!” Wendy shouted, shocked by everything she had been told. 

“Well do you love him?”

“I don’t know…” 

“Well if you don’t, then kill him. You’re the only one here who can. I know about your plan with Tiger Lily. If you really hate him then go through with it. But if you think you love him tell him, you could be the one to save him. One or the other is going to happen eventually, it’s your choice which.” 

Wendy was having a hard time grasping this. It was just so hard to believe. And all the pressure she felt only made it even harder to think about. 

“Well which would you chose if you were me?” she finally said.

“Well if it were me… I’d save him of course. He’s done a lot of terrible, monstrous things, but he’s still a boy. He still has a heart, that much I’m sure of. You don’t know him like I do. He used to do good things. He would save orphaned children, give them a home on the island. He would play with and protect all the children who came to visit at night in their dreams. But then something changed in him, even before the prophecy he started to change. He became more and more monstrous, but I like to believe that the boy I first met here a long time ago is still in there somewhere, and that all he needs to come back is love… but it’s not me who can save him. It’s all your decision Wendy. No one else’s but yours.”

“But what if I don’t know which I want!” Wendy yelled

“Think about awhile, look into your heart. Figure out which feeling is stronger, your hatered or your love, and then act on it. I’m not here to force you to act on it now, I just felt you needed to know about this.” 

And with that, she stood up and walked out of the cottage without even a goodbye, leaving Wendy all alone to try to sort out all of her thoughts and feelings. She had thought things were hard when she was trying to figure out whether to believe Tiger Lily or Hook. Now she had Tinkerbell’s big revelation to deal with as well. None of this made things easier for her. She had been content to have an uneasy friendship with Peter for the time being, but now she was being told she had to choose whether she loved him or hated him. She didn’t know, she didn’t think she would ever know, but she had to figure it out eventually. Apparently she was the prophesied Grandest Imaginer, a title that under different circumstances she would be proud of. Instead she resented it and the burden that went with it. She didn’t want to kill anyone! She didn’t want to save anyone! She just wanted to have a normal, peaceful existence in Neverland or in London or where ever, without all this stress. But now she had to make the biggest decision of her life. She had a power that no one else had, and she had to decide how to use it. Would she kill the beast, or save the boy? She didn’t know.


	11. The Last Petal Falls

Wendy did not sleep well that night. She tried, but her head was swimming with questions. All night she tossed and turned, trying to force the thoughts out of her head. She couldn’t do it though, there were just too many questions to answer, too many memories to try to block out. Why did she have to make this decision? Why was she the Grandest Imaginer? How did she even know Tink was telling the truth? She hadn’t known her for very long, she didn’t exactly trust her, maybe this was all a lie meant to punish Wendy for replacing her. Yet, when she thought of the look on Tink’s face when she told her Peter was in love with her, Wendy did not see a trace of deceit. There was something so sincere about the way she said it, there was a hope in her eyes, a belief that true love really could conquer all. It was a look Wendy knew well, a look she had often had when she read stories of Princes and Princesses falling in love, even if she was not sure if she believed in them anymore. So she could not bring herself to doubt the truth of what Tink had told her. She was the Grandest Imaginer of the prophecy, and Peter was in love with her.

It made a lot of sense when she really thought about it. She still remembered the way he looked at her when she first arrived on the Island, the way he smiled at her when their eyes first met. Over time she had grown to hate that smile, to see it as the beginning of his manipulation of her, but in the moment, it had made her melt a little inside. She had always thought it odd that he had decided not to kill her. It’s not as if she had given him any good reason to, she wasn’t very useful to him, she just told stories. That was really no reason to keep her alive when he had killed so many others, but he did anyway. Now she understood the real reason.

Other bits of the puzzle started to come together as she thought about them while lying in bed. The mysterious way he looked at her when she told her first story, his insistence on visiting her every day, even back when he had her in a cage. The time he forced her to kiss him... that was a memory she had long tried to forget, but Tink’s words had made it come back as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. She had always thought he had wanted to taunt and torture her with that kiss, but maybe it was more than that… That was the day he had set her free from her cage as well, the first time he had ever seemed to care about her or feel remorse for how he had treated her. Soon after that he had built her cottage for her, because he wanted her to be happy in Neverland, he seemed so tortured when he saw her crying. Then there were all those times they had fought because he didn’t understand her obsession with love stories. And the time they spent in Pixie Hollow, he was so sweet to her, until they saw the wedding and he acted monstrously. But then he went through so much effort to apologize to her, giving her the two most precious things she owned, Lily, and the bottle of pixie dust she wore on a chain around her neck. Hook had told it to her before and Tink confirmed it, Peter Pan was in love with her. There was no denying it when all the pieces were put together. 

She turned over in her bed again, frustrated that she could not stop her rushing thoughts. Could she excuse all of his crimes because he was in love with her? He had slaughtered almost an entire tribe of people. He had thrown all those girls to the mermaids, young, hopeful girls, who were really no different than Wendy. He would have killed her too if she hadn’t happened to be the foretold Grandest Imaginer. Even if he did keep her alive he had treated her monstrously for the majority of her time there. She was his prisoner after all. He was keeping her from her parents, from her brothers, from Baelfire, all because he wanted her to himself. If he really loved her he would have let her come and go from Neverland as she pleased. Instead he kept her in a cage for weeks. Even when he let her out of the cage she still wasn’t free. She was his pet, living in a birdhouse, without anyway of escaping. She kicked the sheets off her legs at that thought. Really he deserved to die! Then Tiger Lily could finally get her revenge and she would get to return home. She was sure her family was still worried about her, even if she had been gone a long time. She wouldn’t necessarily have to kill the lost boys, they could come to London with her. She was sure they would love to have real mothers and fathers. Even Felix could come with them. He was loyal to Pan, but he also saw Wendy as a sister. He would follow her if she asked and her parents would adopt him, after all they had already adopted Baelfire. 

Frustrated, she turned over in her bed again, tangling the sheets around her feet. Who was she kidding? Felix would never give up his loyalties to Peter, none of the lost boys would. Peter had done a lot for Felix, for all of them. They had truly lost before he found them. Some of them had lived on the streets, some were orphans, and others came from abusive families. None of them really had happy homes to go back to like Wendy. Neverland was their home, and Peter was their family. They weren’t going to betray him for her. The lost boys were always telling her about the good things Peter had done before she came to the island. The things he did before the prophecy, before whatever it was that he needed to be saved from caused him to change. Felix always said that Peter had saved his life. Tinkerbell talked about all the children he had taken on and protected. Even Tiger Lily said she had lived peacefully on the island with Peter before the prophecy. Peter had been a demon boy for as long as Wendy had known him, but if she believed what everyone else was telling her, he wasn’t always so terrible. Something, fear of what was foretold in the prophecy, or some other mysterious force, had made him more monstrous then he had been before. Whatever it was, Wendy was the only thing that could save him. If she loved him. Did she love him? She wasn’t sure. He’d done so many terrible things, was it even possible to love someone like that? But could she kill him? She wasn’t sure about that either. How could she kill someone who cared so much about her? Someone who, she had to admit, she cared about herself. But caring about her hadn’t stopped him from keeping her a prisoner. He was a demon, and he was a boy. She didn’t know what to do about it. She went back and forth between the two over and over again. It kept her up for hours, tossing and turning in bed, her head filled with questions and memories she couldn’t escape. At some point she wore herself and dropped off to sleep for an hour or two, but by the time the sun rose she was waking up again to the realisation that she was still faced with the most difficult decision of her life. 

As she was forcing herself to get out of bed she realized she would not be able to figure this out on her own. It would’ve been nice to have her mother there to give her advice, but how would she even describe the situation to her? How on earth would she tell her mother that she had to decide between falling in love with, or killing a boy who had kidnapped her and held her captive on a magical island where no one ever grew up? Her mother would never believe her, let alone have any advice to give her. In this case she decided she was probably better off looking to fiction for answers. All of her favourite characters were right there with her in her books, and they certainly had a lot more experience dealing with odd situations.

After she had gotten dressed, a task that had taken much longer than normal in her tired, sluggish state, she began looking through her books for advice. When Peter had given her the cottage he had also given her a simple wooden bookcase that was stocked full of all her favourite books. Her eyes skimmed over them all, each bound with a variety of brightly coloured leathers and embossed with fancy gold script that told her what they were just by glancing at their spines. She examined the books one by one, speaking out loud as if she was holding an actual conversation with the characters themselves. 

“Alice in Wonderland.” She read out loud as she took the first book off her shelf. “I really do love this book, and I’ve always felt I had quite a lot in common with Alice, but Wonderland is not the proper place to go looking for answers of any sort.” She laid the book down next to her. 

“Treasure Island.” She read, picking up another book. “I read this aloud to Peter once. He really loved it, but I don’t think it’s the right place to go for romantic advice. Plenty of killing though…” she placed it on top of Alice in Wonderland with a sigh. 

She had to have some books about monsters somewhere right? Those would help her come to a decision. She skimmed the multi-coloured rows of books again until something caught her eye.

“Dracula! That’s about a terrible monster who kills lots of people, surely there must be an answer in there.” She opened the book and flipped through it a few times. It had been a long time since she had read it. “Well they do kill Dracula in the end, but Dracula isn’t really in love with anyone, so he’s really not much like Peter is he? No I don’t think this will be of any use to me either.” She put the book down. 

Next to Dracula was something a bit more promising. “Frankenstein! That has a monster as well.” She took all three volumes off the shelf. “Here’s another monster that kills quite a few innocent people, and even he says he deserves to die at the end… but I’ve always felt really bad for him. All he ever wanted was to be loved and accepted. Nobody gave that to him, not even his own creator. But he was different from Peter. The monster never chose to be an unloved monstrosity, Peter did. Didn’t he?” she but that book down with a sigh, it was only making things more complicated. 

“Well Maybe Jane Austen has some answers, she’s an expert on romance” she searched her complete collection of Jane Austen novels “There’s no need to look at Pride and Prejudice. I already discussed that book with Peter. He’s still no Mr.Darcy, no matter how hard he tries to be nice to me. Really all of these men are far too kind to compare to Peter, there’s not a monster among them. They’re all easy to love, not like him.” She made a face at the thought of it. “He’s the most difficult boy there ever was. No, none of these books will be of any use to me.” 

Having abandoned Jane Austen, Wendy was beginning to give up hope of ever coming up with an answer. She looked through the books one last time in desperation, fiddling with her pixie dust necklace as she did so. Suddenly, her eyes stopped at two books on the shelf next to each other. They we’re the books she was looking for, even if she did not realize it until later. 

“Wuthering Heights” she whispered, taking the first one off the shelf. “Well Peter and Heathcliff certainly do have a lot in common. They’re both awful, controlling people, who keep people as prisoners.” She fell silent for a moment thinking about it, as she twisted the chain on her neck.. Even though he was a terrible person, she’d always felt drawn to Heathcliff. There was something that appealed to her about his complete devotion to Catherine, even after her death. She always emphasized with him. Even in his worst moments she wanted him to become a better person, to be happy in the end. She knew he and Catherine were meant for each other, and she felt so sorry for him and everything he suffered. She cried when he died. She always felt awful for doing so but despite everything he did… 

“I’ve always loved him…” she said out loud. “As a character in a book of course” she caught herself, dropping Wuthering heights hastily. “It’s different with a real person.” 

Next to Wuthering Heights was another book that caught Wendy’s eye. It was a tale she knew very well, but she took it down from the shelf to look at it anyway. It was a beautiful copy of the book, bound in rose red leather with gold cursive script on the cover. Each page was edged in gold and it was full of beautiful illustrations. It might have been the most expensive of all the books Peter had given her. She took the book over to her favourite stuffed chair, leaving the stack of rejected books on the floor for later. She curled up on the chair with Lily resting at her feet. Hoping for at least some sort of distraction, if not an answer to her problems, she opened the book. Soon she was absorbed in the story and the beautiful pictures. Every once in a while something in the story would hit a little closer to home than she would like. Then she would get distracted and begin thinking of Peter instead, only to quickly snap herself out of it and attempt to return to the book. Eventually she managed to clear her head of all her questions, at least temporarily. By the time she was done reading it was almost time for dinner. She watched the sun set outside her window and cleaned up while waiting anxiously for Peter to arrive.

Finally Wendy heard a knock on the door. She hesitated a minute before opening it. She had not seen Peter since her conversation with Tink and she didn’t know how to act around him. It was awkward enough to be around a boy she knew was in love with her, it was even worse after spending her whole day trying to decide whether she was in love with him or hated him. She was just going to have to try to act like nothing had changed, like she was no more aware of his secret than he was of hers. It was probably one of the hardest things she had ever done. 

“Hello Wendy bird.” Peter said as she opened the door, he had gotten a lot better at not barging in like he owned the place.

“Um, Hello.” She responded. 

“I know I’m a little early today, but I figured we could take the scenic route back to camp.” He grabbed her hand and guided her out the door. 

“I didn’t know there was a scenic route.” She said as they started their walk with Lily trailing behind them.

“There’s really not.” He said with a laugh. “All of the jungle just looks like a jungle. I just wanted to talk to you.” 

“Oh…ok… What do you want to talk about?”

“Nothing in particular. How was your day today?”

“Fine” she said twisting her necklace with her free hand.

“Well what did you do today?”

“I read a book.” She said, looking down at her necklace, avoiding his eyes.

“And what was it about?” he said furrowing his eyebrows at her. 

“Nothing special”

“Is something wrong?” he suddenly stopped walking.

“No! No, no, no nothing is wrong.” She pulled him forward, anxious to get to camp and a large group of people.

“You’re strange bird.” He said shaking his head at her as he followed her.

Luckily, they arrived at the clearing before Peter could ask any more questions. She immediately rushed over to the food and started making herself busy cooking to avoid him at all costs. She knew he was probably getting suspicious, but she couldn’t help it. It was too difficult to be around him knowing what she did. She continued to avoid him until she was forced to sit next to him at the campfire. By that time Peter was already sure something was up, so he didn’t bother asking about her day anymore as they ate. It was still strange for her, being so close to him. She had grown so comfortable around him over time, but now everything had changed, either for the worse, or for the better.

“Well if you’re ready Wendy I think we’d all enjoy hearing a story tonight.” Peter said after Wendy had been silent for a long time. 

“Oh… Um… sure.” She answered, suddenly shaken from her thoughts. “Let’s see, what story should I tell tonight…”

She didn’t really have to think on the question at all. She knew what story to tell today. It was the only story that felt right. The one she had been looking for all along.

“This is the tale of Beauty of and the Beast.” She declared confidently. “Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a poor merchant with a beautiful daughter named Belle. The merchant tried hard to give his daughter everything she desired, but he was unlucky and his ships often wrecked at sea, so they were very poor. Then one day the merchant received a letter telling him that one of his lost ships was found, with its cargo safe. This was what he was waiting for, the moment they would be wealthy. He had to travel to the coast to collect his money, and he asked Belle if she wanted her to buy her any gifts while she was there. He expected her to ask for a new dress or jewelry, but all she wanted was a single red rose, as they were her favourite flower. The merchant went to the coast only to discover that the letter he received was wrong, his ship had returned, but the cargo was ruined, he was still as poor as he had ever been. He headed home dejectedly, forgetting all about the gifts he had wanted to buy Belle. On his way home a huge storm started, he was forced to find shelter in the closest home he could find, a castle buried deep in the woods. The castle seemed completely empty, so he started a fire and ate some of the bread he had brought with him. While he was sitting by the fire he remembered Belle’s desire for a rose. He went searching around the castle, hoping to find some rose bushes or a vase full of flowers. What he found instead was much more precious. He wandered into the most barren part of the castle and found a deep red rose encased in glass. It was so beautiful that the petals seemed to sparkle. He opened the case and went to remove the rose when he was stopped by a deafening roar. He turned around and saw a giant beast, almost like a lion, but able to stand on his hind legs. The beast was furious at the merchant, the rose was his most precious possession, and he had broken into his home and tried to steal it. The merchant told him that he had no intention of doing any harm, he had had needed shelter and come into the castle thinking it was empty. The rose, he explained, was supposed to be a present for his daughter, who was so good to him and never asked him for anything. The beast said he would give him another rose, one from his garden, and would allow him to return home to give it to his daughter, but only if he promised to return to the castle to be his prisoner, without telling his daughter any of this. The merchant agreed reluctantly and took the rose back home to Belle. She was grateful for the gift, but very concerned when her father told her he would be leaving again. She begged him to tell her why and he eventually agreed. She decided she had to go to the castle in his place. Her father tried to convince her not to, but she was determined. She felt that it this was all her fault, and she knew that her father was old and unwell. If he went to prison he would surely die. She went to the castle and the beast accepted her in her father’s place. At first he locked her in the dungeon, only going to see her once a day to bring her food. Eventually he grew fond of her and gave her a beautiful bedroom of her own in the castle. The beast began to knock on her door every day to invite her to eat dinner with him, and every day she would refuse. She hated the beast for keeping her prisoner. He tried to win her over by giving her expensive gifts, but she would not accept them. Finally the beast did the only thing he could. He apologized for treating her as a prisoner, and said that she would be treated as a welcome guest, so long as she would agree to stay with him for just a little while. Belle was touched by his sincerity and decided to accept his invitation to dinner. Belle and the Beast soon became good friends, they often sat by the fire at night while Belle told stories. The beast showered her with gifts, beautiful dresses, expensive jewelry, and all the books she could ever want. Then one day the beast told Belle he loved her and asked her to marry him. Belle was touched, but said she only loved him as a friend and would not marry him. That night Belle dreamed of a handsome prince, who loved Belle with all his heart, but was trapped in the castle. The next day the same scenario happened again, the beast asked Belle to marry him, she refused, and she had the dream about the Prince again. Eventually Belle decided she was really in love with the Prince and went searching the castle for where the Prince was being held captive. She never found the Prince, but she did find the rose encased in glass. The rose was still as beautiful as it had been when her father found it, but it was beginning to lose its petals. The beast found her looking at the rose and told her he had something to tell her. He was going to let her go home to her father, but he gave her a magic mirror that would allow her to see him whenever she desired. She promised to come and visit him often. Belle returned to her father and saw that he had not been well without her. He was sick in bed and all alone. She stayed and took care of him, completely forgetting about her promise to visit the beast. Then after her father had recovered, he asked her how she had escaped the castle. That reminded her of her promise and she immediately felt awful for breaking it. She used the magic mirror to see how he was, and was shocked to see him laying half dead next to the magic rose, which only had one petal left. She rushed back to the castle and found the beast breathing his last. She held him in her arms and cried. ‘You can’t die’ she said, ‘I love you.” As she said the words the last petal fell off the rose, and the beast turned into the handsome prince from Belle’s dreams. He had been the prince all along, but had been turned into a beast by a sorceress, who had come to his castle disguised as a beggar woman. He had selfishly refused to give her shelter, and as punishment she turned him into a beast, giving him a magic rose to remind him of the incident. She told him that he would die when the last petal fell from the rose, unless he could learn to love and be loved in return. Thanks to Belle, he had, and the two were married and lived happily ever after in the castle for all their days.” 

That was the story Wendy had read earlier that day. That was the story she had been looking for. She was right in thinking a story would have the answer for her and she was even more certain it did when she said the story out loud. She knew how she felt now. She was in love with him, with Peter Pan, the beast of Neverland, who may just be a handsome prince in disguise. He was horrible, and he didn’t deserve it, but she was in love with him anyway. She had been for a long time, she just hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself before. Now she could. 

“Well goodnight everyone.” She said getting up from her seat, feeling much more confident than she had earlier. “I’ll be off to bed now.”

“Would you like me to walk you home?” Peter asked.

“No thank you.” Wendy smiled shyly. “I’d like to walk home by myself tonight if that’s alright.”

“That’s fine.” Peter shrugged his shoulders. 

She felt bad about saying no, but she was pretty sure if she spent much more time with him she slip up and say something about how she felt. She was going to tell him, but it had to be at just the right moment. Partially because she wanted it to be romantic, like in one of her books, even though she knew Peter was really not the best at romance. There was also the fact that if she caught him by surprise with it, he might panic, and who knows what would happen then. He was always at his most monstrous when he was frightened by something. 

She practically skipped through the jungle, she was bursting so much with joy. There was no feeling more wonderful than being in love, and knowing that she was loved in return. She knew it wasn’t the most ideal situation, it wasn’t exactly a fairy tale romance, or even a Jane Austen romance, but she was happy. She was aware that Peter was more of a Heathcliff than a Prince Charming, but she really truly loved him, even if a part of her wished she didn’t. It helped to know that Peter hadn’t always been so evil. He had once done good things, a long time ago, Felix and Tinkerbell had told her as much. Sure he wasn’t an angel, even back then, but at least she had a reason to believe that he may not have been a demon after all. All he needed was someone to love him, to save him from himself. And she was that one. She was the Grandest Imaginer. She would be the one to fulfil the prophecy. Everything was going to work out perfectly, she was sure of it. 

She and Lily were soon back in her cottage. Just like the night before sleep was the furthest thing from her mind, but she tried to get ready for bed anyway. She changed into her nightgown, washed her face, and brushed her hair, but her thoughts were filled with nothing but Peter the entire time. She had to figure out exactly when and how she would tell Peter that she knew he was in love her, and that she felt the same way. Obviously it couldn’t be in front of the lost boys, Peter wouldn’t want to show any weakness in front of them. Perhaps on one of their walks around Neverland? When they were all alone and surrounded by flowers, that would be nice. Or maybe she could get him to take her back to Pixie Hallow? That would be romantic, unless there was another wedding there. It was not going to be easy to plan this out, but she wanted it to be at the perfect moment. She sat down on her bed to think about it, playing with the bottle of pixie dust on her neck as she did. It was starting to become a habit of hers, playing with that necklace whenever she thought of Peter. 

“Where do you think would be the best place to tell him?” she asked Lily, rubbing the pups chin as she did. “You have no clue either do you? Well we’ll figure it out.”

She thought about it for a bit longer until she realized it was getting quite late. She really needed to get some sleep, but she was just too anxious and excited. 

“I need to calm down a bit.” She told Lily. “You stay here and go to sleep. I’m going to take a walk outside. I’ll be back soon.” 

Lily obediently laid down on the bed to rest while Wendy put on her slippers and went to open her door. 

She never did go on her walk, because when she opened her door there was a surprise outside her cottage. Peter was sitting on the ground outside, his back against the wall, asleep. Wendy had never seen him look so relaxed and vulnerable before. His head was cocked to the side, his hands rested gently in his lap, and one long leg was bent inwards while the other jutted out. She could see his chest move gently up and down as he breathed. He couldn’t have been very comfortable, he was still fully clothed, boots and all. Yet, he looked so peaceful there, more peaceful than Wendy thought possible. You would have never known he was responsible for so many deaths by looking at him there. He looked just like any other young boy, like her brothers asleep in the nursery. Wendy was afraid to disturb him, this was such a rare sight. She didn’t even know that he slept at all. She tried to be quite, but the sound of her door shutting behind her caused him to stir. 

“Wendy…” he muttered softly.

She startled a bit at the sound of her name. Did he know she was there or was he talking in his sleep? She decided to wait and see before answering. 

“Wendy please don’t…” he said softly again.

“Don’t what?” she asked softly, still not sure if he was dreaming.

“Please don’t leave. I’m sorry.”

So he was dreaming, about her. She thought that was rather sweet and decided not to disturb him. She tried to walk away, but the sound of her foot steps were enough to wake him up fully.

“Wendy.” He said louder this time, his eyes open but looking around groggily “Please come here.”

She did what he said and sat down on the ground next to him. 

“What is it Peter?” she whispered. 

“What are you doing outside your house?” he asked sleepily   
“I…I couldn’t sleep.” She said, hoping he wouldn’t ask why. “I thought I’d go for a walk, to tire myself out. Isn’t the better question what are you doing outside my house?”

“Oh… you’re right.” Peter avoided looking in her eyes, but Wendy thought she could see the faintest blush on his cheeks, even in the dark. “I… I come here every night…to guard your house…It’s dangerous out in the jungle by yourself. There are wild cats, and pirates, and all sorts of other threats. Even the fairies can be rather unpleasant to humans at times.”

Wendy laughed at the thought of a rogue fairy attacking her. “Well that’s very sweet of you. Thank you.” She decided it was best not to add that he was the only danger she had ever really feared in this jungle. 

“It’s not that big of a deal.” He shrugged.

“Well surely it is. You must not be getting enough sleep, if you’re falling asleep on the job. Maybe you should go back to camp and get some rest, I’m sure I’ll be fine for one night. Or if it would make you feel better you can come inside and sleep in my chair.” 

“I never used to have to sleep at all.” Peter grumbled.

“What do you mean?”

“It used to be that as long as the island was awake, I was awake, but now things are different. Now I keep dozing off and I hate it. I have no control over it. It’s getting worse.”

“Well what could be wrong that’s causing it?” asked Wendy, her maternal instincts kicking in. Are you ill? Because if you are I’m sure I could help you. I’ll make you some chicken soup just like my mother used to give me, it’s the best kind of medicine.”

Peter was silent for a moment, he seemed to be debating whether or not to say something. He took a deep breathe in before speaking again. 

“Yes, I’m ill, but it’s nothing that just chicken soup could fix.” He looked straight into her eyes. “I’m dying Wendy.”

Wendy felt her heart drop into her stomach when he said that. Tink said that she knew something was wrong with Peter, but Wendy had never expected it to be as bad as this. She didn’t know what to say.

“What? Why? How?” only questions burst out of her mouth. “Your Peter Pan, you can’t die! Surely there’s something that can be done?” she tried to keep her composure, but she felt tears on the edge of her eyes. 

“The magic here is dying, and when it goes, the island goes, and so do I.” he said it so calmly, as if he had already accepted it as fact. 

“I don’t understand.” She shook her head wildly. “How is that possible? This is Neverland, the magic can’t just disappear. Can it? How do you even know that it is?” 

“It’s obvious, if you look in the right places. Here, I’ll show you. Come with me.” 

He stood up and grabbed her hand, pulling her up to her feet. He walked briskly through the jungle, never letting go of her hand. They were taking a path Wendy was unfamiliar with, to a part of the island she had never been to. They came to a part of the forest that had the tallest trees Wendy had ever seen. She could just make out the top of them if she craned her neck. They seemed practically impossible to climb, but then why would Peter ever need to climb trees when he could fly. 

“Where are we?” Wendy asked.

“This is the pixie dust woods, and this,” he put his hand on the trunk of the tallest tree in the wood, “Is my thinking tree.” 

“What’s a thinking tree?” It sounded like something Wendy had read about in a book once as a child.

“It’s where I go when I need to be alone. No one else has ever been here, except you.” 

“Well I’m very honoured to be the first person allowed to see your thinking tree. But can I ask what this has to do with the magic?”

He pointed up to the top of the tree. “Flowers used to grow at the top of that tree, at the top of all of the trees in this wood. Those flowers used to create pixie dust, and the tops of the trees would glow at night. Then one day the flowers started to die and fall of the trees. Until eventually the last petal fell off, and there was no more pixie dust left.”

“But surely you must have saved some?”

“All I have left is the little bit in this bottle,” he showed her the half empty bottle hanging from a cord around his neck. “I gave the last pixie dust from the last flower to you.” 

Wendy looked down at the bottle hanging from her necklace. She couldn’t believe he had given her something so precious. She was glad she hadn’t been brave enough to use it yet, she wouldn’t want to waste such a treasure. 

“So then the magic really is dying then, and you with it.” Tears were beginning to fill her eyes again. “Surely there is something that can be done?” 

“Well…” he looked down, unsure of whether to tell her again. “There is this prophecy…”

The prophecy! In her shock at Peter’s dying Wendy had completely forgot about the prophecy. That was the answer. One could stop him and one could save him. She was the Grandest Imaginer and she was the one with power to save him. She just had to tell him she loved him and then everything would work out. Her love would save his life, and Neverland, and magic, and then everything in Neverland would be good and beautiful again. It would be just like in one of her fairy tales. 

“Wait, before you go on, I have something to tell you.” She said hesitantly. 

She moved in more closely to him. She was going to be daring, just as daring as she had been on Captain Hook’s ship, but this time without the alcohol. 

“I love you.” She whispered. “And I know you feel the same.” 

Before he could respond she leaned in and kissed him. Though he was startled at first, it only took a few seconds for him to start kissing her back. This was nothing like their first kiss, this was long and heated. It was the resolution of months’ worth of tension, of loving each other, and of hating each other. There was desperation in it, Wendy desperate to save him, Peter desperate to possess the girl he had longed for. It was hungry and animalistic. It was not a kiss from a fairy tale, but one that could only belong deep in the jungles of Neverland. Wendy pulled him in closer, tangling her fingers in his wild hair, pressing her body against his. He responded by putting his hands around her hips and grasping tightly, digging his fingernails into her skin through the thin fabric of her nightgown. Wendy got lost in it, forgetting about Peter dying, forgetting about the prophecy, forgetting that she was kissing a boy that had killed so many other girls. She could think of nothing except how much she wanted this, wanted him. The kiss could have continued forever, neither of them ever growing old and dying, but eventually Wendy, being human and not magical like Peter, needed to catch her breath.

Peter was not too keen to stop, but he responded to Wendy’s breaking the kiss by moving his mouth down to kiss her neck. Wendy struggled to remember what they had been discussing before, she knew it had been important. Peter showed no signs of caring about that anymore. 

“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this” he mumbled in-between planting kisses on her neck. “For you to be mine.”

“I still don’t belong to you Peter.” she said breathlessly “Just because I love you it doesn’t mean you can control me.”

Something about those words clicked in her head, she remembered why she had kissed him in the first place, the prophecy.

“So is the prophecy fulfilled?” She sighed. 

“What?” he asked, not really paying attention to what she had said.

“The prophecy, the one that said I was the Grandest Imaginer.” 

At the sound of the words Peter snapped out of it. He stopped nuzzling her neck and pushed her away hard enough to knock her backwards into the tree. Wendy was more confused than she was frightened or angry. She practically had whiplash from how quickly he changed from love to hate. She had no clue what she had done to cause it.

“No, I won’t let you stop me.” He said fiercely, his eyes the darkest Wendy had ever seen.

“What?” she cried, her eyes filling with tears.

“Your leaving here now.” He raised his arm in the air to call his shadow to him.

“No! I’m not leaving. I won’t. I want to stay here, with you, forever. Why can’t I stay?” she yelled, the tears streaming down her cheeks  
.  
“I don’t want you here.” He said coldly as the shadow arrived. 

Wendy fell silent. It was as if he had plunged a knife into her stomach. She had told him she loved him, she had tried to save his life, and he didn’t want her. Had everything she said, everything she’d done meant nothing to him? Was this some sort of game? And now that he had won, now that she had given in to him, it was time to put the pieces back in the box and be done with it. She didn’t understand. She had to mean more to him than that. How could he not want her anymore? 

Before she had time to react the shadow had already grabbed her and was beginning to lift her in the air. She tried to struggle, but the shadow was too strong for her. Soon she was too high up, if she had managed to struggle out of its grip the drop would have surely killed her. So she had no choice but to let the shadow take her away from Neverland, and away from Peter. She knew that the kiss did not work, if it had he wouldn’t have done this to her. Peter was going to die, and without her there nothing could be done about it. Though the shadow had prevented her escaping, he could not prevent her crying, and so she did, for a very long time. By the time they were back in London she had cried every tear she had left, but she didn’t feel any better. Soon they were flying past Big Ben, they were almost to her house. It had been a long time since she’d seen that clock, last time she had been filled with thoughts of the adventure that lay ahead of her, but now she was only hurt and confused. 

The shadow placed her on the sill of the open nursery window. Baelfire was asleep on the window seat. He was still waiting for her to return, after all this time. He woke up startled at the sound of her landing. 

“It’s just me.” She said softly. 

“I thought I’d never see you again.” He said in suprise.

“How long was I gone?” She asked, it felt like she had been gone for a very long time, but nothing in the nursery had changed at all since the night she left. 

“Just through the night.” He replied. 

“It felt like so much longer than that.” She said, sitting down on her bed. “It felt like a thousand and one nights… Time must work differently there.”

“What was it like?” he asked, sitting down next to her. 

“It’s an island where there are no grown-ups to tell you what to do, but there are fairies, and mermaids, and all sorts of mystical creatures.” 

“Then why did you leave?” 

“Because…” she bit back tears and twisted her necklace in her hands again. “He didn’t want me.” 

She had been wrong about everything. Peter was not a handsome prince in disguise. She had told him she loved him, and he remained a monster. Yet, she still loved him and she didn’t want him to die. She knew she could save him, if only she had the chance. Yes, Neverland was not the fairy tale she had wanted it to be, but still she wanted nothing more than to return. Except, she never could. He didn’t want her to.


End file.
